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6" 1 ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£ÊUÊ" /" ,Ê2013 Season Roundup 2012/13
In This Issue
ÀÊ/} iÊ-ÌÞ>vv\ From the Executive Director ...... 2 iÀi½ÃÊ>Êà ÌÊvÊ>ÊÃ`iÊÊ >ÀV Ê From the Editor ...... 3 £]ÊÓä£Î]ÊÊ7 ÌiÊ,ÛiÀÊ >Þ°Ê Metamorphism ...... 4 / ÃÊ«>Ì ÊÃÊ>VÌÕ>ÞÊ>VÀÃÃÊ7 ÌiÊ Education AVPro Course Review ...... 6 ,ÛiÀÊ >ÞÊvÀÊÌ iÊ ÌÊ`Ê From the AAA ...... 7 i>`ÜÃÊ«iÀÌÊ>Ài>Ê>`Ê Mailbag ...... 8 ÜÌ Ê>ÊVÕ«iÊ Õ`Ài`ÊÞ>À`ÃÊ What’s New ...... 9 vÊ/LiÀiÊ `}iÊÃÊ>Ài>°Ê Snow Science / >ÌÊV>ÞÊ >ÃÊÃ>ÀÊ>ëiVÌÊ Going Metric...... 11 >`ÊiiÛ>ÌÊÌÊÃiÊvÊÕÀÊ ÌÊ`Ê«iÀÌÊ>Ài>]Ê>`ÊÜiÊ 2012/13 Season Roundup vÌiÊÕÃiÊÌÊ>ÃÊ>Ê`V>ÌÀÊëiÊ AGENCY AVALANCHE CENTERS National Avalanche Center ...... 12 vÊÃÀÌðÊ/ iÊ`>ÞÊÜiÊÜiÌÊÊ Doug Abromeit: A Life Well Lived...... 13
Ì iÀiÊÌÊ}À>LÊÃiÊvÀ>Ì]Ê Last Turns with Abro ...... 14 Ì iÊÃÕÀv>ViÊV`ÌÃÊÜiÀiÊ>Ê Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center ...... 15 Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center ...... 17 vÀiiâ}ÊÀ>Ê>ÞiÀÊÛiÀÊÀÕiÃÊ Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center...... 17
ÊÌ iÊÀ}]ÊÃÊÜiÊ >`ÊÌÊ Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center...... 18 Ü>ÌÊÕÌÊÌÊÃvÌii`ÊÕ«ÊÊÌ iÊ Utah Avalanche Center - Wasatch ...... 20 Craig Patterson ...... 21 >vÌiÀ°Ê/ iÊÛiÀ >}}Ê Flathead Avalanche Center...... 22 VÀViÊÃiVÌÊLivÀiÊÌ iÊ Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center . . . 22
vÀ>VÌÕÀiÊiÊÜ>ÃÊ`À««}Ê«ÀiÌÌÞÊ Mount Washington Avalanche Center...... 23 >}}ÀiÃÃÛiÞÊÊÕÀÊÜ>ÞÊ°ÊÊ >ÛiÊ Cordova Avalanche Center ...... 24 Sierra Avalanche Center...... 24 ÃiiÊÕV Ê>À}iÀÊÃ>LÃÊÌ >ÌÊ >ÛiÊ Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center ...... 24
ÀÕÊ>LÕÌÊÌÜÊiÃÊvÀÊÌ >ÌÊ Colorado Avalanche Information Center...... 25
Ã>iÊ«>Ì ]ÊÞiÌÊÌ ÃÊiÊÜ>ÃÊÃÌÊ Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center ...... 26 ÌiÀiÃÌ}°Ê/ ÃÊ«>ÀÌVÕ>ÀÊÃ>LÊ Mt Shasta Avalanche Center ...... 27 West Central Montana Avalanche Center ...... 28 >`Ê>ÊÌÊvÊÌ>«iÀÊ>`ÊiÃÃÊÛÕiÊ Utah Avalanche Center - Moab...... 28 Ì >ÊÃ>ÀÊiÛiÌÃÊvÀÊÌ iÊ«>ÃÌ°ÊÊ NON-AGENCY AVALANCHE CENTERS
Crested Butte Avalanche Center ...... 29 For more about last winter Valdez Avalanche Center ...... 30 in the Pacific Northwest, Wallowa Avalanche Center...... 31 Kachina Peaks Avalanche Center ...... 31 see the NWAC summary beginning on page 18 ¦ We started warning skiers and riders of potentially large “facet The Avalanche Review sluffs” entraining the entire P.O. Box 248 season’s snowpack, a type of Victor, ID 83455 avalanche that doesn’t quite fit into our current list of avalanche problems. I propose new SWAG code, such as LSP (Loose-Shit-Pile) or DBS (Don’t-Bother-Skiing). —Zach Guy, CBAC Summary, pg 29 X PAGE 2 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î THE from the executive director
REVIEW 7iViÊ>iÊ ÕÃVt Welcome Jaime Musnicki. After a months-long process that began in " /" ,ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ6" °ÊÎÓÊUÊ 1 ,Ê£ the spring, Jaime Musnicki has been chosen as the American Avalanche The Avalanche Review is published each fall through spring by Association’s new executive director. the American Avalanche Association, Inc., a nonprofit corporation. Nearly 40 persons responded to our request for interested applicants. The Avalanche Review welcomes the submission of articles, photographs and illustrations. This list was whittled down to a dozen qualified applicants, and from there to a final five persons before interviews began. The AAA Executive Please send submissions to: Board spent countless hours evaluating the candidates before coming to Lynne Wolfe –– Editor a decision in early August. PO Box 1135 Driggs, Idaho 83422 Jaime brings great enthusiasm and strong communication skills to the tel: (208) 709-4073 ED position. Most recently, she was a winter program supervisor for the [email protected] National Outdoor Leadership School as well as a backcountry ski guide and avalanche educator. Jaime has also contributed to TAR: see December Advertising: Production: Paul Nordquist Fall Line Design 2010 and April 2012. 1101 Lenore Drive 270 N Main I look forward to working with Jaime over the next few months during Tacoma, WA 98406 Driggs, ID 83422 tel: (253) 830-4444 tel/fax: (208) 354-6500 the transition to her new position at AAA. The AAA office will now move [email protected] [email protected] to Jaime’s home in Victor, Idaho. Helmet, sunglasses, and that smile: you will —Mark Mueller, outgoing AAA executive director R recognize her anywhere. Business and Subscription Office: Jaime Musnicki –– AAA Executive Director PO Box 248 Victor, ID 83455 Your editor and your new executive director check out layers on a cold day in the Tetons. Photo by Kate Koons tel: (307) 699-2049 [email protected] [email protected] NOLS over the past 10+ years in a broad range of roles and capacities – from field instructor (predominantly backcountry skiing, glacier mountaineering, rock climbing) to avalanche educator to winter program supervisor to facilitating customized leadership and risk management trainings with private clients. One of my main goals as I move into this new position Executive Director ...... Jaime Musnicki with the AAA (in addition to further honing my office AAA Officers savviness!) is to learn more about the different varieties of *President ...... Dale Atkins *Vice President ...... John Stimberis avalanche professionals we aim to support and represent *Secretary...... Scott Savage at the AAA: Who are you? What do you do? What topics *Treasurer...... Mike Ferrari Hello AAA members, subscribers, and issues are important to you as avalanche professionals? Committee Chairs What are we currently doing that supports you? Are Awards ...... Halsted Morris and friends, Data...... Ned Bair there new or different things we can do to support you Education ...... Sarah Carpenter, Kirk Bachman I’d like to take a few minutes to introduce myself even more effectively? I don’t want to limit myself in this Ethics ...... Lel Tone as I begin to transition into my new role as executive position to only my direct personal experience (largely IT/Web ...... vacant Membership ...... Stuart Thompson director of the American Avalanche Association. First from the guiding and avalanche education realms); I Research...... Jordy Hendrikx and foremost, I feel honored and excited to be taking seek to broadly listen to you, our members, and gather Search & Rescue ...... Rich Browne on this new responsibility with the AAA. I very much information that will enable me to make decisions and Ski Area ...... Bill Williamson *Publications...... Blase Reardon look forward to learning the ropes of my new role; work to better support all avalanche professionals. With Publications Committee getting to know the AAA community more closely; that said, please feel free to be in touch with me at any Editor ...... Lynne Wolfe and beginning to better understand how I can best point to ask questions and/or share your perspectives, Editor Emeritus ...... Steve Conger help, support, and guide our organization to most opinions, experiences, ideas, or feedback. Editor Emeritus ...... Sue Ferguson Editor Emeritus ...... Blase Reardon effectively serve our membership of inspiring, talented, Mark and I have been working together on this transition Editor Emeritus ...... Bruce Tremper and diverse avalanche professionals. for a few weeks now and will continue into the fall. Mailing Section Representatives I have called the Tetons home for the past 11 years, address and phone number for the AAA has officially Alaska…...... Andy Dietrick residing in Teton Valley for over eight years now. I did shifted to me in Victor, Idaho (see masthead, at left). I plan Eastern Section ...... Kyle Tyler begin my official education in snowy climes and activities to communicate these changes via email, TAR, and the European Section ...... Krister Kristensen Intermountain North ...... Mark Staples at the ripe age of two in rural upstate New York, the websites (and regular mail, as needed). Intermountain South ...... Damian Jackson Finger Lakes region to be more precise (think: rolling I genuinely look forward to meeting and working with/ Northwest ...... Patty Morrison hills, lake-effect snow, and night skiing). More recently for all of you in the weeks, months, and years to come. Rockies ...... Becs Hodgetts Sierra ...... Gene Urie and professionally speaking, I have worked mainly for —Jaime Musnicki, incoming AAA executive director R Member Representative ...... Jonathan Shefftz Certified Instructor Rep ...... Brad Sawtell Executive Committee denoted by * 7 Ê*, "/\ The mission of the AAA is: iLiÀà «Ê >Ì>L>ÃiÊ >>}iiÌÊ/Ê ÜÊÊ*>Vi A. To provide information about snow and avalanches; B. To represent the professional interests of the United States Last spring the AAA began using your membership information any very well, and over time we hope avalanche community; an online membership database time, you will first set up an account to make further use of its advanced C. To contribute toward high standards of professional competence management tool called Wild by logging into Wild Apricot at features, particularly the Membership and ethics for persons engaged in avalanche activities; aaa19.wildapricot.org/Content/ D. To exchange technical information and maintain communications Apricot (WA). With the growth Directory. Online payments are made among persons engaged in avalanche activities; of our membership, managing Members/MemberProfile.aspx through PayPal (you don’t need to E. To provide direction for, promote, and support avalanche education our database had gotten so time with your email address. The have a PayPal account) a trusted third in the US; consuming that we needed to first time you will be prompted party payment service we have used F. To promote research and development in avalanche safety. implement a modern tool like WA. to create a password; click on the for many years. Subscription: $30 per year (4 issues). Subscription is included with mem- Using this program will allow the Forgot Password link to set up your Individuals and groups that make bership dues to AAA. For subscription and membership information, see www.AmericanAvalancheAssociation.org. AAA to use your membership dues password at aaa19.wildapricot.org/ multi-member renewal payments, Contributions: Please submit material eight weeks prior to publication for the benefit of the avalanche Sys/ForgottenPasswordRequest or subscribers who use subscription date. Include address and telephone number. Please submit typed manu- community rather than paying for After setting up your account services (e.g., Ebsco or Swets) may scripts by e-mail or disk (CD or DVD), using any popular word processing program. Submit any figures as an EPS (preferred), PDF, TIFF or JPG file time spent performing outdated you will be able to change your not be able to use WA for renewal (300 dpi resolution at 100%). We will return materials if you include a administrative tasks. email address or any other contact payments, but individual members stamped, self-addressed envelope. The key component to this update information at your convenience will still be able to set up an account Articles, including editorials, appearing in The Avalanche Review reflect the individual views of the authors and not the official points of view is your email address. Your email when the need arises by logging into and update email or contact adopted by AAA or the organizations with which the authors are affiliated address is your unique identifier in your Wild Apricot account. information in order to receive unless otherwise stated. WA, so you need to provide AAA an If you can’t log in or create a important messages from AAA Layout & Design: Karen Russell, Fall Line Design, (208) 354-6500, [email protected]. email address that you regularly use. password for some reason, email including renewal notices. ©2013 by the American Avalanche Association. Two or more members cannot share [email protected] for assistance. Thank you in advance for helping Materials may be reproduced for research or classroom use. the same email address. This is a new system for all of us, and us make this work. If you have any Permission is also granted for use of short quotations, figures, and tables in scientific books and journals. For permission for other When prompted to renew as a we may encounter minor glitches questions, do not hesitate to contact uses, contact The Avalanche Review. member or subscriber, or to update along the way. So far, WA has worked AAA for assistance. R 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 3 W from the editor Ê Ê>ÌÊ Þ>ÌÞÊ>`ÊÀ Lately I have been thinking a lot about the old-fashioned concepts of loyalty and honor. We have personal and professional loyalties, and sometimes they overlap, in which case the loyalty is incredibly strong. Currently, my primary professional loyalty lies with The Avalanche Review, and by extension to the greater avalanche community, or “our tribe,” as Janet Kellam puts it. But loyalty and honor are Lounging in the green forest of Oregon’s McKenzie River, abstract concepts. The real working on TAR from the road. Photo by Dan Powers question is “what does this loyalty look like?” It looks like sitting down at the computer and opening the TAR folder first, making lists in my head and then waking up in the night with ideas and edits when the deadline is approaching, then getting it done right. A host of other words represent how I conduct myself: professionalism and honor top the list. I try to double-check stories, include the deep background and the “rest of the story.” I’ll call folks who know more about a topic than I do, and I try to hold humility front and center, print a correction or apology if I get something wrong. Because of that effort, I’m proud of The Avalanche Review, and I know that you are too. We’re the connector between avalanche workers out there on the front line, often in remote places, small groups, with the support of the greater avalanche community as an intangible presence far away. We bring you the news, the gossip, the latest tools or questions that we’re separately pondering over coffee or beers. So why do I bring this up? Because I am grateful to the others in my tribe who share my dedication to excellence. It’s easier to do so as a paid staffer (full disclosure: I am paid for my work on TAR), but it can be a stretch for a volunteer to donate free time and extra effort to a cause. I want to thank the hardworking Governing Board of the AAA, and especially the Executive Committee, for stepping it up this summer; for example, sifting through 40 applicants to hire a new executive director, and sorting through thorny questions behind the scene. In other words, these volunteers have shown deep loyalty to the avalanche world: I honor your considerable commitment, which in turn inspires further loyalty. In this issue of TAR, first off you’ll meet our new executive director, Jaime Musnicki. I hope you meet her in person too. She’s smart, understated, funny, and incredibly competent. She knows how to phrase the hard questions both clearly and tactfully. I strongly feel that she can fill Mark’s shoes (although I will miss him tremendously – no one can exude calm like he does) and look forward to watching her grow within this position both personally and professionally. TAR has a new ad manager: welcome to Paul Nordquist who had to hit the ground running; find his profile and contact information on page 5. Welcome also to Dallas Glass, the new AVPro director; you’ll see a more in-depth introduction to him in the December TAR. In this season summaries issue of TAR, you’ll find a series of well-written reports from last winter around the AAA. It was bittersweet putting this issue together, as both the NAC and the UAC summaries were inextricably tied to obituaries of prominent avalanche workers who have left big voids for this coming winter. Karl Birkeland calls us to pick up the loose threads of all the projects that Doug Abromeit was involved in; we must also emulate his good cheer and effortless role as community connector. Bill Nalli and Drew Hardesty both mourn for fallen colleague Craig Patterson. Again and again we return to the central question of risk and tolerance: how to manage and minimize, recognize and avoid dangers, build in enough room to make mistakes and learn without irreversible consequences. The rest of this 32nd volume of TAR will follow similar themes as the last couple of years: 32-2, the December issue, will loosely revolve around what’s new, what’s been in the works from the end of last season and over the summer. The February issue, 32-3, generally follows a science theme, although this year I hope to report to you the latest work on sidecountry education as well. Then the April issue, 32-4, will further our conversation on risk and decision-making, including significant case studies/accidents/topics from the winter underway. Thanks once again for your support and your loyalty as AAA member and TAR reader. Send a note or photo of what’s new, what you’re pondering. —Lynne Wolfe R
Aloha Lynne! Hope you are well! I'm missing the snow, icicles hanging outside the office window, digging pits and making turns! But I'm trying to stay caught up with TAR! Thanks for the great work you and all the contributors do to put out such a great publication! Aloha from the Big Island, Eric White (former official outhouse snow shoveler from the Mt Shasta Avalanche Center) X PAGE 4 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î metamorphism
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installation and maintenance support Aleph Johnston-Bloom (left) takes over the reins at Alaska Avalanche School as Tucker Chenoweth (right) moves to a new position at Denali National Park. >Ã>ÊÛ>>V iÊ-V Ê7iViÃÊ i« Ê ÃÌ Ê>ÃÊ iÜÊ Story by Eeva Latusuo When leaves start changing, some he was the first boss to be hired outside Alaskans switch gears and head south the “home community.” With hard work for the winter. Alaska Avalanche School and a diverse skill set, he paved a solid is observing a different migration pattern. path for Aleph to follow. Tucker will Aleph Johnston-Bloom is stepping to continue to share his teaching skills as the helm of Alaska Avalanche School in a senior instructor. October, heading north to Anchorage Many know Aleph as one of the from Durango where she has been ski leading Snow Divas dedicated to patrolling and teaching avalanche courses strengthening the community of female for an extended period of time. avalanche professionals. As a long-time Anchorage cannot boast the perfect snow pro and a Prescotteer, she has mountain weather of southwest many areas of expertise, including Colorado, but Aleph is looking forward to curriculum development, explosives learning more about high-latitude snow work, and mountain biking. Stay tuned climates and becoming an active member to what flavor Aleph will add to the of the Alaskan avalanche community. As south-central Alaska snow scene. AAS executive director, Aleph will be in Alaska Avalanche School is an charge of keeping the school on a path Anchorage-based independent nonprofit ^^^TUKNYV\WJVT of outstanding education, as well as teaching Alaskans about snow since the running the business operation. ’70s. AAS offers diverse programs from Previous ED Tucker Chenoweth bread-and-butter courses to customized has moved onto a permanent year- training for varied audiences. round position with Denali National Park’s mountaineering program, an Eeva Latosuo, a senior instructor with opportunity not to be missed. Tucker AAS, is overloaded with vitamin D after led AAS through four exciting years of an amazing summer up north, but low on growth and re-organization. At the time, vitamin P (powder). R
Congratulations and thanks to our new AAA members as of spring 2013: Professional Members Andrew Hennigh, Incline Village, NV Bill McCabe, Columbia Falls, MT Jake Palmer, Reno, NV Timothy GLassett, Girdwood, AK Bret Hackett, South Lake Tahoe, CA Chris Eckel, Douglas, AK Daryl Teittinen, Truckee, CA Heather Thamm, Girdwood, AK Colin Zacharias, Tofino, BC Mark Kelly, Valdez, AK Eirik Ainer Sharp, Golden, BC Nick D’Alessio, Girdwood, AK Joshua Olson, Bozeman, MT Affiliate Members James Pyke, Missoula, MT Saylor Flett, Quincy, CA Trevor Fulton, Moscow, ID Justin Spain, Alburquerque, NM Katharina Miller, Bozeman, MT Benjamin J. Gardner, Durango, CO Lucas P. Zukiewicz, Bozeman, MT Max Wittenberg, Soda Springs, CA Logan King, Missoula, MT Leigh Michael Frye, Big Sky, MT Skooter Gardiner, Ketchum, ID Kip Rand, Boise, ID Scott Palmer, Lander, WY Cameron Banko, Park City, UT Jamie Ramsay, Salt Lake City, UT Daniel Joswiak, McFarland, WI Alexandra Taran, Snowbird, UT Julian Hanna, Portland, OR Patrick Graham, Hailey, ID Mark Piersante, San Rafael, CA Fred Coriell, McCall, ID Allen Giernet, Winnetka, CA Maura J. Longden, Victor, ID Anne St. Clair, Moab, UT James Laidlaw, McCall, ID Tom Ceighton, Denver, CO Austin H. Shannon, Sequim, WA Brendan Reiss, Golden, CO Michael Miller, Leavenworth, WA Justin Siemens, Anchorage, AK Joshua Cole, Winthrop, WA Sean Geitner, South Lake Tahoe, CA Brandon Levy, Leavenworth, WA Dan Sandberg, Keene, NY Gary L. Kapezynski, La Center, WA Eric L. Hunter, Colorado Springs, CO Aaron Hartz, Bend, OR Pete Keane, Bend, OR Joshua Baruch, Boulder, CO Michael Lackman, Willington, CT Ryan Mason, Telluride, CO Mark L. Greeno, Bozeman, MT Brian Simonds, Nathrop, CO Cameron Mackenzie, Salt Lake City, UT W. Andrew Temple, Silverton, CO Brian K. Shirley, Logan, UT Barrett Langendorfer, Edwards, CO Ryan Diehl, Logan, UT Karen Bockel, Telluride, CO Mark J. Griffin, Boulder, CO Peter Woodward, Basalt, CO Eric Cannon, Anchorage, AK Patrick Ormond, Ouray, CO Gerald S. Haugen, Bellevue, WA Scott Smith, Avon, CO Tom Janisch, Wenatchee, WA Andrew Fisher, Aspen, CO Thomas Jolley, Seattle, WA Jeremiah Peck, Vancouver, BC David Seman, Kenmore, WA Bill Hoblitzell, Minturn, CO Chris M. Edwards, Jackson, WY David J. Sweet, Moscow, ID Ryan Smeedlling, Salt Lake City, UT Jennifer Morse, Nederland, CO Josh Beckner, Princeton, NJ Ian Satterfield, Reno, NV 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 5 W *>ÕÊ À`µÕÃÌÊÃÊÊ/i>Ê>ÃÊ iÜÊ/,Ê`Ê >>}iÀ Paul Nordquist is excited to be working with and contributing to the American Avalanche Association as the new advertising manager of The Avalanche Review. His more than casual interest in snow began while completing the Ski Area Operations program at Colorado Mountain College in the late ’80s where he was introduced to avalanche education by Rod Newcomb. After working for Mammoth Mountain Ski Area Paul transitioned to business development, marketing, and sales in the beverage industry, media services, and most recently a Fortune 100 medical company Paul Nordquist looks forward to explaining the benefits of advertising in TAR. where he spent the last 10 years. He lives in Tacoma, WA, with his wife Melissa Contact: Paul Nordquist, 1101 Lenore where they eagerly anticipate the first Drive, Tacoma, WA 98406, pwnordquist@ snows of the new season. gmail.com, 253-830-4444 R
7 / \Ê Ì VÃÊ ÌÌiiÊ >À The American Avalanche Association (AAA) is seeking to fill the Ethics Committee Chair position. The Ethics Chair keeps the AAA Governing Board updated regarding any ethics concerns within the avalanche industry as based on the existing code of ethics (see www.americanavalancheassociation.org/ mem_ethics.php ). Interested applicants should: s 0OSSESS STRONG WRITTEN AND ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS s "E TACTFUL DIPLOMATIC AND PROFESSIONAL IN ALL !!! RELATED MATTERS s !TTEND BIANNUAL BOARD MEETINGS s 2EGULARLY PARTICIPATE IN 'OVERNING "OARD DISCUSSIONS VIA EMAIL ANDOR conference call Committee Chair positions are appointed by the Governing Board and are volunteer positions. The successful applicant is responsible for travel expenses related to AAA biannual meetings. Interested applicants should send a letter of interest by October 20 to John Stimberis, AAA vice president, at [email protected]. R
iÊ*ÀÌV iÌÌÊ ÛiÃÊÌÊ, Ê Õ/iÊ-Ì>ÌÕÃ Ben Pritchett has moved on from the CAIC where he was the education >ÀÃÊ/>iÃÊ ÊÌÊ iÝÌÊ iÛi coordinator from 2006 through spring Aaron Carlson joined the Friends of CAIC as executive director this September. 2012. During this tenure, Ben also worked In addition to his primary role of fundraising, Aaron will also lead our efforts to as program director for AIARE. With increase avalanche awareness opportunities for students in Colorado’s public school hopes of spending less windshield time system. The FoCAIC will take over some of the responsibilities of former CAIC bounding around Colorado and more education specialist Ben Pritchett (see story...), and Aaron will be instrumental in time at home, Ben decided to focus on getting this up to speed. With Alan Henceroth now on the board and Aaron as AIARE, continuing as program director, full-time ED, the FoCAIC is excited to see the nonprofit go to the next level. but now in a full-time capacity.
Aaron grew up skiing the 299' vertical hills of Minnesota and later discovered The CAIC would like to thank Ben 1+/,+ his passion for the backcountry while living and skiing in Utah, Colorado, and for his great work, dedication, and )( )'+# 00#.5 &,1./'+0. +/*'0 New Zealand. Aaron has a bachelor’s degree in Parks, Recreation and Tourism enthusiasm for avalanche education, ! from the University of Utah, which has allowed him to work in and experience and wish him many happy days .0,2,4/ $# 01.#/- 0#+0#" many different parts of the world. In 2008, Aaron brought his passion to the CAIC chasing his wife and kids around " Benefit Bash. As the co-organizer, he was able to design, organize, and run the Crested Butte’s backcountry. 0& 0"#0#!0/0&# 1.'#"2'!0'*/ R ,.'#+0 0',+ +"/3'0!&#/0,0&# largest fundraiser in CAIC history. With ,-0'* )0. +/*'//',+ +0#++ 0, this momentum, Aaron has been an asset #+/1.#5,13')) # to the development of the FoCAIC. Tools for Avalanche Forecasting and Snow Research “The Friends of CAIC plays an box 332, fort collins Snow Boards, Water Equivalent Samplers 1)0'-)# 1.' ) colorado 80522 Snow Density Kits, Digital and Spring Scales important role in supporting the CAIC and '+! /#.#/!1#./ (970) 482-4279 Standard Ram Penetrometers, Powder Rams .#! 1%&0'+ + ""'0',+ ) 2 ) +!&# avalanche education throughout the state Pocket Microscopes, Loupes, Magnifiers /,$03 .# of Colorado,” Aaron states. “I am excited [email protected] Digital and Dial Stem Thermometers to help bring avalanche education into Avalanche Shovels, Depth Probes Colorado’s school systems and to be a part Tape Measures, Folding Rules, Shear Frames, Force Gauges in supporting the most active avalanche Snow Saws, Field Books center in the nation.” R X PAGE 6 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î
l-r: Mark Rikkers
Photographer: Jay Beyer Denny Hogan, Pat Ahern, Jerry Roberts, Peter Shelton Photo by Lisa Issenberg
NEW PIEPS DSP PRO
From Jerry Roberts: Old Snowmen Of The San Juans Summer Rendezvous at Casa de Jerry Hi Lynne... Ya a nice get together of old snow Negros. Denny was visiting Colorado for a month vacation and came over for a few days of R&R with old friends. Quite fun and many pisco sours later Seldom Seen Denny crawled off in the darkness to lick his wounds and BlackDiamondEquipment.com return to Kalifornia...think he's retiring in Jan or may work the entire season to buy new drapes for his casa in Buena Vista... education Ê6*ÀÊ ÕÀÃiÊ*ÀÛ`iÃÊ -iÌ }ÊvÀÊ ÛiÀÞi Story & photos by Amber Moran Nine students gathered at Crystal Mountain, WA, for the American Avalanche Association’s 2013 annual AVPro course February 23 - March 3. Instructors Jake Hutchinson and Brad Sawtell presented a wide range of subjects that challenged the students’ knowledge and built on their existing foundations. The course is aimed at working professionals in the snow science and avalanche field. Eight out of the nine students in this year’s course were ski patrollers. Other AVPro courses often have included highway-control workers, guides, and Students got up close and personal with the business end of the M60 tank WSDOT uses to help control Snoqualmie Pass. other professionals in avalanche-related fields. In order to gain the most out of the course, students are expected to be terrain. On Snoqualmie Pass students had the opportunity proficient and current in many skills prior to the course. to see the M60 tank WSDOT uses to control major avalanche The course began with classroom instruction, beacon skills paths – a unique tool to keep the highway open in winter. On checks, and group rescue scenarios. The course alternated another day, WSDOT cleared portions of Chinook Pass to allow between field time and classroom time allowing the skills access to spring control routes. While most of the course was learned in the classroom to be applied during field time. In spent with the heavy cloud cover and precipitation typical of the classroom, instructors strengthened the fundamentals and the Pacific Northwest, during the trip up Chinook Pass the introduced new ideas, while introducing some of the latest weather cleared, providing wonderful views of Mt Rainier. topics from ISSW and current research such as the anticrack The last part of the course was spent taking the final tests. theory. Time was spent reviewing valuable case studies that To pass the course, students must demonstrate that they any professional could learn something from. can proficiently dig a pit to a set depth and document all A significant amount of the time was spent at Crystal observations and tests within an hour time frame following Mountain ski area. The ski patrol pointed out the challenging SWAG guidelines. Students must locate three beacons in a routes that they manage and discussed ski area management 100m x 100m area in less than seven minutes. The students policies. It was interesting to learn about different boundary must also pass a written exam and instructor evaluation. policies and how they are managed compared to other resorts The AVPro course lasts eight days with 9-10 hours of across the country. Both Crystal Mountain and Alpental ski instruction each day, including approximately 60% field areas have open boundary policies that are managed through time and 40% classroom time. The course is taught by AAA education and interaction with the public. For avalanche Certified Instructors with a pass/fail format. Typically taught control work, tram lines and hand charges were common – as at a different location each year, the course strengthens opposed to artillery. Many of the course participants were knowledge from previous courses and introduces new accustomed to different snowpacks and different ski area information to challenge students. The course varies from management techniques which provided opportunity for a a Level 3 in breadth, so students are encouraged to take the unique learning experience. AVPro course in addition to their Level 3. A highlight of the course was working with the Washington Overall the course challenged everyone in their own way. State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) on Snoqualmie Spending time with other working professionals and learning and Chinook Passes. One day was spent at Alpental ski resort their methods is one of the most valuable parts of the AVPro learning about the partnership between the resort and the course. The course teaches you how to take the numerous highway department to keep the interstate open. The ski patrol pieces of data and information that you have learned to gather at Alpental also explained their management techniques and previously, and fuse them together into one big picture. It showed the class some control routes on their challenging then teaches you how to apply the big picture effectively to whatever your profession may be. I was the only one in the course who wasn’t a ski patroller, but I was able to gain the maximum for my professional applications from this course. I am an environmental engineer at a local mountain mine. My avalanche-related professional functions include avalanche education, mine rescue, meteorological network engineering, and search and rescue. I will be able to apply the knowledge from this course to every element of my avalanche career and my recreation as well. For more about AVPro courses or scholarship opportunities go to www.americanavalancheassociation.org, where the dates for AVPro 2013/14 will be posted.
Amber Moran is freshly engaged to long-time sweetie Aaron Parmet, with nuptials to be held this upcoming spring on the summit of Drew Gibson practices his skills in a snowpit. Denali, conditions allowing. R 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 7 W aaa news Ê-«À}Ê >À`Ê iiÌ}Ê ÕÌià In attendance: Dale Atkins, Scott Savage, the education spectrum/progression John Stimberis, Lynne Wolfe, Mark Mueller, and having committee co-chairs. Sarah Brad Sawtell, Kirk Bachman, Halsted Carpenter stepped down as AVPro Morris, Gene Urie, Stuart Thompson, Mike coordinator and committee co-chair, Ferrari, Blase Reardon (via Skype) leaving Kirk Bachman as sole chair.
Financial report Certified Instructor program Operated at close to flat (zero net income/ Brad Sawtell presented a plaque from loss) in last fiscal year. AAA lost $5200 on NSAW to AAA for financial assistance AVPro due to low enrollment and needs to continue the educational event this to collect past-due TAR advertising debts. year when the Friends of the NW A combination of factors lead to the low Avalanche Center declined to provide enrollment and will be addressed by the financial assistance. CI instructor Education Committee and the incoming program wording on the website was AVPro coordinator. revised. AAA accepted four out of six CI applicants. Discussions about Membership report paying application reviewers for denied AAA is now using Wild Apricot applications, CI continuing education membership database management requirements, and creating active/ software. This shows more expired inactive CI status. members than would’ve have been shown in the past. SAR Rich Browne and others (Tom Murphy Pro development grant proposals and Zack Slutsky) have been working AAA received two new requests from on a rescue course curriculum. Zack Alaska and the Sawtooth Avalanche Slutsky and Tom Murphy on SAR Center and a total of $9500 in “assumed” course committee. Discussion about requests (events funded in past years). SAR chairperson needing to be more We expect to fund all requests partially involved with AAA. or in full. Research SWAG update There were no practitioner grant AAA sold 450 this year, has 225 on hand, applications this year. and needs to reorder soon. Google Maps/avalanche.org project Awards Discussion about integrating Google Patricia “Patsy” Hileman, Christian Maps-based national avalanche danger Cabanilla, Craig Patterson, Bill Foster, and warning map into avalanche.org and Rick Gaukel were added to the website. Product is expected to come memorial list. online in fall 2013. Online store and current executive director will hire It’s not working well in its current this position. AVPro coordinator will be Publications/TAR Wild Apricot state. AAA plans to discontinue it and hired following ED search. Executive TAR editor is pleased with the last issue. AAA will offer similar information explore options this fall. committee, education committee chair, TAR issue themes are working well through Wild Apricot as we do now in and outgoing AVPro coordinator will and becoming easier to deal with. Wild printed membership directory, saving Donation button hire this position. Apricot is working well to answer “Why approximately $3000 per printing. AAA expects to add a donation button didn’t I get my TAR” queries; many Wild Apricot costs ~$1000/year and to the website in 2013. Voting on committee chairs and of these are expired memberships. To we can drop Constant Contact ~$250/ other positions reduce international postage costs, we yr. Executive director is experiencing Corporate partnerships GB elects Kirk Bachman as education need to have a viable electronic version some glitches with Wild Apricot, but There needs to be empowerment for committee chair, Brad Sawtell as of TAR. We need to emphasize electronic they’re getting worked out. We will someone to approach potential partners; certified instructor program chair, publishing and have E versions of all our create a digital membership directory we need to have a clearer vision. Halsted Morris as awards chair, and published materials. AAA must consider where individuals can determine what Discussion about current sponsorship Stuart Thompson as membership formats that produce quality ebooks. information gets shown and to whom. agreement(s). New AAA executive representative. Becs Hodgetts elected as director will have some role in attracting new Colorado section representative. TAR book Membership survey and managing corporate sponsorships. Further discussion on size, scope, Results posted on AAA website. Web/IT format, and plan for book on history President notes that it gives us a Alaska avalanche centers Discussion about web/IT chair vacancies of TAR. Publications chair will work wealth of information. Summary=80% Discussion about avalanche center- and whether these chairpersons with this committee to further clarify professional, 90% men, 35-45 years old related issues in the Alaskan avalanche should be paid. GB decides that these project goals and scope. is the biggest age group, 45-65 is biggest community. AAA will revisit the are volunteer positions, and we will two-segment age group, 40% of affiliates avalanche.org “dot-listing” guidelines continue working with our current IT Membership are educators. “Why be a member” and criteria. contractor for website and IT needs. New professional members approved. question response=TAR+community+ Brief discussion about the philosophy research. Professionals=25% ski patrol, ISSW 2012 donation/NAC account Miscellaneous of professional membership and 17% education, 12% forecasting, 17% AAA received $5000 from ISSW Ski Industries of America established a professional standards. Application guiding. 60/40 on should we require 2012 and $5000 from an individual backcountry safety committee, and the forms need revision; will work on this continuing education for professional to fund research in honor of Theo AAA is part of the committee. Meeting over the summer. members. AAA priorities=education, Meiners. AAA decides to continue on May 15 with AAA president to professional development, charging 5% to manage funds for other attend. Regarding recent ski area Education committee review network+standards+guidelines. Future organizations, following historical accidents: Dale will be attending the During skype meetings over the winter, benefits they’d like to see=improved precedent with avalanche centers and NSAA meeting in May as a RECCO the education committee addressed online avalanche library, discounts, and other organizations. representative; do we have any the makeup of the committee (number discounts on attendance to programs. questions to ask them? We’d like to of members, background/vocation/ Bylaws hear their thoughts on sidecountry affiliation of members) and committee Strategic plan AAA decides to put association bylaws language and education initiatives. goals and missions. The education The Canadians (CAA) have done on the AAA website. committee is trying to represent and this well, creating a clear vision and Fall meeting consider the needs of all avalanche mission. Philosophical discussion about ED and AVPro coordinator openings GB meeting tentatively set for Friday, professionals – not just educators. educational track missions, progressions, Discussion on hiring new executive November 1, in conjunction with USAW Further discussion on where the and goals. Discussion about making the director. AAA hopes to fill position by in Alta/Salt Lake City; general meeting National Avalanche School fits into AAA more visible on avalanche.org. early August. AAA executive committee to follow on November 2. R X PAGE 8 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / iÊ iiÀÃÊ-ÜÊ->viÌÞÊ / iÊ iiÀÃÊ,iÃi>ÀV ÊÀ>ÌÃÊ Õ`>ÌÊ1«Ê>`Ê,Õ} ÌÊLiÊÜ>À`i`Ê `ÊvÊ"VÌLiÀ The Theo Meiners Snow Safety In honor of Theo Meiners’ tireless modeling. The “practical” grant will Foundation (TMSSF) – a Wyoming efforts to support avalanche research be awarded to a practitioner project nonprofit whose mission is to further prior to his passing in the fall of 2012, with an emphasis on a subject relevant Theo Meiners’ dedication to avalanche new funding is available to support to helicopter skiing. education, safety, and study – is up avalanche research projects. ISSW 2012 Applicants should describe their and running. A professional ski has teamed with John Byrne III, the proposed project, identify the need instructor and examiner, backcountry owner of Alyeska Resort, to offer two for grant funding as well as where guide, heli-ski operator, snow science separate grants of $2,500 each during the funding would be applied, and researcher and presenter, Theo passed the fall of 2013, and two additional present a proposed timeline. All grant unexpectedly in September 2012. grants of $2,500 during the fall of 2014. recipients will be required to submit a TMSSF plans to establish and operate These funds will be administered by paper for presentation at the ISSW. avalanche education programs for the the AAA grants process. Theo Meiners 2013 grant recipients public as well as provide resources and Applications for the research grants will be required to submit for ISSW mentoring to snow professionals. This had a submission deadline of September Banff in 2014. Grant recipients in 2014 past summer, TMSSF worked with 30, with the awards scheduled for will be required to submit for ISSW the South American Beacon Project to dissemination by October 31. The same Breckenridge in 2016. Photo of Theo Meiners by Jessica Baker finish equipping the El Colorado, Chile dates will apply for the 2014 grants. As of press time, all grant deadlines ski patrol with avalanche probes and the Bridger Teton Avalanche Center One of the two grants, the “research” are now September 30 in order to shovels. Theo had been a ski patrolman and the Utah Avalanche Center in an grant, can be applied to basic research insure consistency. Please contact Jordy at El Colorado, always making it a effort to bring UAC’s Know before You projects in avalanche behavior or Hendrikx with your questions. R point to return and visit his friends Go or similar avalanche awareness and the mountains he loved. programs to middle schools in various This winter, TMSSF will continue mountain communities. mailbag the avalanche awareness training that The nonprofit has applied for IRS Theo regularly provided to new ski 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. To check ÀiÊ-`iVÕÌÀÞÊ/ Õ} Ìà instructors each season in Jackson. In out the TMSSF’s website go to www. addition, the nonprofit is working with snowsafetyfoundation.org. R Regarding several articles discussing the topic of Sidecountry in TAR 31-4 >LÀ>ÌÊÃÊÕÀÊ/ ii I agree with Paul, and unsurprisingly I think Scotty, Simon, Ethan, and Doug AAA Education Committee Moves Forward hit the nail on the head. If we don’t acknowledge that it is sidecountry, then we are just ignoring the issue. As Paul stated, “We don’t address a health risk Story by Kirk Bachman, AAA Education Chair by agreeing not to mention it by name.” Travel habits and demographic are Last winter, the AAA surveyed its membership as to what we value in being part different than the backcountry, yet the snowpack and rescue possibilities are of this professional organization. Our membership consistently chose education, the same. Therefore, we must approach these users differently and develop either in the form of the The Avalanche Review, guidelines for US avalanche new tools and strategies for them to make their assessments. education, sponsorship of regional workshops, or for the AAA to create a forum We can’t make much of a snowpack assessment from the chairlift, so for the exchange of ideas for the advancement of US avalanche education. we need to rely more on our advisories, reports of previous avalanche The AAA Education Committee takes to heart the notion that its work should activity, and observations from previous days in the sidecountry. The embrace the importance of forum. Currently, the working group includes members medium and attitude in which this information is shared is integral in how from small and large avalanche course providers, college education programs, it gets used as well. Savage et al., note that many previous incidents in the avalanche forecast centers, avalanche education trainers, and guide services. Each sidecountry have involved users that frequently travel in this terrain, and of these individuals and organizations provides access for avalanche education they should therefore be more familiar with the snowpack in these areas. to the general public as well as professional level training. These individuals’ higher frequency visits statistically make them more However, our working group also recognizes that there might be avalanche likely to be the victims in a sidecountry incident, but if they apply their education interests whose needs are not adequately represented. Some examples intimate knowledge to their decision-making, they can greatly reduce include education for snowmobilers, education for youth recreationists, or the needs their likelihood of an incident by choosing a few key times to travel more of specific regions or organizations. To this end, two AAA education committee conservatively, or not at all. Even if they ignore all snowpack clues and members are specifically charged with outreach: Dave Lovejoy, dlovejoy@prescott. choose to not go there, or travel more conservatively based only on weather, edu and Jake Urban, [email protected]. It is their job to specifically seek input they will reduce their likelihood of involvement greatly. from members of the avalanche education committee who have ideas or issues Realizing that the best skiing often occurs in avalanche terrain at times of that need to be heard in the discussions of our committee. higher hazard due to recent loading of sick pow is one step in recognizing Our most recent effort in this vein was to more specifically address the needs when we should trade the gnar terrain for mellower terrain to ski the of the snowmobile community and seek input from those who have experience sick pow, or maybe we should ski the gnar terrain and take slightly more presenting avalanche education to snowmobilers. This effort is ongoing, and we tracked-up snow by staying inside the lines. want to hear from anyone with a contribution on that front. How can we meet —Alex Marienthal, MS candidate, Snow & Avalanche Laboratory, the needs of that user group? Department of Earth Sciences, Montana State University. This season, the AAA Education Committee will take a more focused look at R what is in place for a professional avalanche education stream. This will include Editor’s Note: Doug Abromeit was coordinating a group of stakeholders to contribute to "Project Zero." With Doug gone, who will spearhead this project? We’d like to revisiting the current guidelines for avalanche education and how existing continue this conversation/exploration of sidecountry issues for the February TAR. professional avalanche training can best meet industry needs and standards. We Contact me with your ideas and outreach; deadline is December 15. hope that avalanche professionals from around the country will provide us with constructive input. We are particularly interested in hearing from professionals who Lynne, are in a leadership role – either supervising a pro team or running professional- I really enjoyed the "Temperature Effects" issue. Good stuff to chew on. Thanks for level avalanche training. putting it together. Back in 1998 I witnessed It is the education committee’s hope that those of you who have an idea, opinion, a size D3 on Mt Hood that ran 2000' vert killing one climber, critically injuring a or contribution will contact us. Our effort is to collaborate with those who share second and taking down two more. The late May sun had just hit the slope of brand-new storm in the profession of avalanche education. This is an invitation to join us. Feel snow no more than 30 minutes before having free to contact anyone of us who serve on the AAA Education Committee: www. risen high in the sky topping the opposite ridge. In subsequent years I saw that same americanavalancheassociation.org/education.php. avalanche recur naturally under almost R identical conditions. Always it failed directly after a storm cycle without enough time to melt sufficient snow to drain through the pack down to the weak bond or layer. I scratched my head for years. And while I still don't fully understand the physics involved, I came to the same conclusion most of these researchers and practitioners have come to: the stresses and deformation of the top of the snowpack caused by the radiation are somehow concentrated at a weak interface/layer deeper in the cold storm snow. A house of cards + first radiation following a storm = big problems I thought you might appreciate a few of these photos of perhaps your youngest fan, Morris, my 7 month old on the beach in FL. —Glenn Klesser 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 9 W Ê, - , Ê, /\ what's new 1Ã}Ê/i >«ÃiÊ* Ì}À>« ÞÊ 1-7Ê-V i`Õi`ÊvÀÊ ÌÊ i>ÃÕÀiÊ >}iÃÊÊ-ÜÊ i«Ì ->ÌÕÀ`>Þ]Ê ÛiLiÀÊÓ Story by Andrew Hedrick The Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop brings avalanche professionals from around the West Last year at the 2012 International Snow Science together for a day of professional development Workshop, we were fortunate enough to be awarded in a workshop environment. We will learn from an American Avalanche Association Research Grant each other with presentations on current hot for the purpose of using off-the-shelf time-lapse topics related to snow science, safety equipment cameras to observe snow depth evolution in avalanche technology, worker safety and liability, human starting zones. The goal of this project is to develop an factors, and history – as well as deconstructing inexpensive, stand-alone method of making automatic accidents and lessons learned and networking snow depth measurements at multiple point locations with other avalanche professionals. over the duration of a winter season. Once again, the morning session is for pros Designed to be simple and robust, the measurement only and the afternoon is open to the public. system currently involves just three components: The morning session is for avalanche forecasters, ski patrollers, snow scientists, DOT avalanche 1. Time-Lapse Camera: 8.0 Megapixel Moultrie™ workers, search & rescue personnel, mountain Game Spy Plot Stalker guides, avalanche educators, and anyone else who 2. External weatherproof battery box with two 12V, works in avalanche terrain. The presentations will 9 amp-hour gel cell batteries be 15 minutes long, with five minutes for Q&A 3. Bright orange depth markers fixed in the ground and social time to catch up and engage in deeper with cement or guy wires. conversations. Equipment manufacturers and Checking the camera mid-season to make sure it still has power retailers will once again display their goods and Once every daylight hour the camera shoots a and storage. The grey box houses the batteries. picture of an array of depth markers within the field Photo by Rialin Flores be available to chat. of view. After the image is captured, a pixel counting We keep our skills sharp and develop algorithm locates the transition from the snow surface But there were certainly other hurdles that could professionally by practice and by continuing our to the brightly colored depth marker. This works not be overcome. Originally a major goal was to place education. This is your opportunity to spend a because the camera is in a fixed location all winter a camera in an avalanche starting zone 2000 ft. above day learning with and from 500+ top avalanche long, and since the size of each pixel is known as Highway 21 in central Idaho. But due to time constraints, professionals in North America. This year, we plan a function of distance, the total snow depth at that this was not accomplished before the snow began to to have the strongest lineup of presenters from location can be calculated from a reference image of fall. Instead, to simulate a similar scenario, a camera around North America to date. a snow-free site (see photo, below). was mounted to a tree along a ridge directly across the highway in a safer, more easily-accessible location. But When we underestimated the size of the wind drift along that The one-day event takes place on Saturday, ridge and the depth marker was obscured from view November 2, from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The morning by the end of December, making any measurements session is open to snow professionals only and impossible. Another problem was the lack of images the afternoon session will be open to the public. overnight and during storms. To cope with these issues, A social will follow the day’s events. the processing algorithm has been adjusted to discard any images where the depth marker cannot be seen, Where and we are tinkering with infra-red game cameras to South Towne Expo Center 9575 S. State Street, test our ability to take nighttime images. Sandy, Utah. www.southtowneexpo.com As for the future of this project, currently the system is not real-time and the snow depth is only determined Tickets after transferring the images to a computer. But Tickets for the entire day are $41 in advance eventually we are aiming to outfit each camera with and $45 on the day of the event. A swag bag, Sample image of the two depth markers deployed at the Bogus an individual mini-PC to process the images and lunch, and happy hour social are all included Basin snow study site. The white posts are cemented and mark in the entry fee. the boundaries of lysimeters used to measure snowmelt. output only depth values. This will hopefully allow R measurements to be transmitted wirelessly and act as Last November, we installed a prototype camera a supplemental dataset to the SNOTEL network. This and depth marker at a snow study site maintained winter four more cameras are slated for installation at by the Boise State University Cryosphere Geophysics Bogus Basin to work on gathering real-time depths. -6 Ê/ Ê / -\ and Remote Sensing (CryoGARS) group. This site, While not all of our goals were accomplished Ri}>Ê*ÀviÃÃ>Ê located just 16 miles northeast of Boise, Idaho, at Bogus this first year, the test season was largely a success, Basin ski area, was chosen as a test site to iron out any mainly because the calculated snow depths were iÛi«iÌÊ-i>Àà problems in our camera system at an easily accessible found to agree well with standard ultrasonic sensors Colorado Snow and Avalanche Workshop location. Two depth markers spaced about 12 feet at a nearby SNOTEL site and along a nearby ridge. apart were cemented into the ground within the field With the overall method proven to work, we can now Friday, October 4: Leadville, CO of view of a single camera, and the snow surface was focus on placing more cameras in complex terrain and Northern Rockies Avalanche Safety Workshop tracked all winter. The complete snow depth results are avalanche starting zones. Saturday, October 12: Whitefish, MT shown in Fig. 3 where it can be seen that they follow www.avalanchesafetyworkshop.com the nearby SNOTEL measurements closely. Andrew Hedrick grew up in Boise and attended Montana Two of our main concerns at the onset of the season State University where he obtained his undergraduate South Central Alaska Avalanche Workshop were camera power and storage. We set the camera degree in physics. He is currently seeking Friday, November 1: Anchorage, AK to capture images every hour from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. his MS degree in geophysics from Boise Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop and the batteries proved to be more than enough to State University where he studies Lidar Saturday, November 2: Sandy, UT power the camera for the whole winter. Also, image remote sensing and spatial variability storage was never an issue. As the last snow melted of seasonal snow with Dr Hans-Peter Northwest Snow and Avalanche Seminar at the study site we had gathered over 1,700 images, Marshall. When not researching snow, Sunday, November 3: Seattle, WA which easily fit on a standard SD card. he enjoys skiing on it. R Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop Saturday, November 9: North Conway, NH Comparison of 4 Snow Depth Measurement Devices www.ESAW.org
Near Marker (camera) Southeast Alaska Avalanche Workshop 175 Far Marker (camera) Bogus SNOTEL (ultrasonic) 150 Saturday, November 9: Juneau, AK Bogus Ridge Site (ultrasonic) Snow depths over the 125 2012/13 winter season. Sawtooth Avalanche Center Avalanche Workshop The SNOTEL is located 100 Friday, December 13: Sun Valley, ID 1/2 mile northwest of 75 the study site; the ridge Gallatin National Forecast Avalanche Workshop 50 site ultrasonic sensor Snow Depth (cm) Depth Snow is located 50' higher Friday, March 14: Bozeman, UT 25 within the study site 0 area. Sierra Avalanche Center Avalanche Workshop Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Monday, April 14: Lake Tahoe, CA R X PAGE 10 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î iÃÃÃÊ i>Ài`\ In Memoriam: GNFAC Professional Development Workshop examines Richard C. Gardiner take-away messages from near-miss incidents in the field Story by Jonathan Shefftz R i c h a r d C . Story by Andrew Kiefer G a r d i n e r, o f On March 6, 2013, the southwest Montana snow The concept of professionalism and the importance Canton, CT, died and avalanche community assembled in Bozeman of communication came up time and again throughout u n e x p e c t e d l y to participate in the fourth annual Professional the workshop. Decisions made and opinions expressed on July 18, 2013. Development Workshop hosted by the Gallatin by professionals carry great significance, and they Although I never National Forest Avalanche Center. can and should have a disproportionate influence w o u l d h a v e The day-long workshop featured a medley of on the safety and well being of others. As Nick suspected it, he presenters with broad expertise in snow and avalanche Meyers, Mike Buotte, and Lynne Wolfe all noted, was 84. Dick had research, avalanche forecasting, ski patrolling, ski good communication skills are essential for avalanche been a National guiding, avalanche education, mountain search control work, while discussing and analyzing the Ski Patrol member and rescue operations, and institutional risk stability of the snowpack, or while simply working since 1966, started management within the scope of outdoor education with a partner or team in an intense situation. the Connecticut and recreation. The familiarity professionals develop with a Nordic patrol program in the 1970s, and served as an Titled Lessons Learned, the workshop was essentially season’s snowpack or specific terrain can often breed a NSP instructor and instructor trainer for avalanche, a compilation of personal incident accounts in which dangerous sense of overconfidence. As Karl Birkeland mountain travel/rescue, and emergency care longer significant injury or loss due to avalanche hazard attested, it is so important to be thinking about the than anyone can precisely remember. occurred or was narrowly avoided. worst-case scenario and to be intentional with whom I first met Dick at a ski patrol mountaineering Throughout the day, many themes emerged, the you travel in avalanche terrain. "Ski with a partner course in 2005. At the course conclusion, he most consistent of which was the simple fact that, who will be thinking about avalanches and skiing announced that NSP was always looking for new regardless of years of experience, even the most appropriately,” he advised. And, as Nick Meyers instructors. I had already taken avalanche courses renowned and experienced practitioners in the field suggested, “Ask yourself: are my thoughts, words, through L3 yet had never thought of instructing. But of snow and avalanches are not immune to making actions an asset or liability to the situation?” Dick was so warm, friendly, and welcoming that I mistakes. Efforts are made to maintain the highest An additional theme that surfaced was the immediately asked to learn more. standard of safety possible, and our professional fundamental importance of recognizing and assessing At his July memorial service, the ski resort community has made great strides in understanding the type of avalanche problem you are dealing with. parking lot looked like a moderately busy winter the dynamic behaviors of snow and avalanches. According to Rod Newcomb, professionals need to ski day, with many in ski patrol uniforms. The Nevertheless, we continue to chart unknown territory, be aware that they often analyze the snowpack only lodge displayed Dick’s mementos: NSP national and the eerie reality of trial and error remains. By from their scope of experience. Instead, he urged appointment badge, trekking poles he used as shining a spotlight on errors and miscalculations, professionals to have heightened awareness of obscure canes, bike shoes, well-oiled hiking boots, and and by being accountable for analyzing our mistakes, and unfamiliar conditions, and to recognize that even one of the many stunningly beautiful wooden great contributions are made to this field. the most experienced avalanche practitioners may kayaks of his creation. Plus so many pictures, The workshop began with Drew Leemon’s still be novices to what can happen. Obscure and always with that same warm and welcoming presentation titled Risk Management: The NOLS unexpected conditions are often responsible for close smile – I kept thinking he would just come around Perspective. By sharing the ins and outs of the NOLS calls and fatalities involving professionals. However, a corner and say hello. risk management system, long-time risk management depth hoar, he asserted, is the primary avalanche After the service, I drove my daughter to a director Leemon established a foundational framework problem associated with patroller fatalities. According children’s museum that was affiliated with the for the workshop. With 28 years of incident data that to Newcomb, a reliable rule of thumb with regard family designed Roaring Brook Nature Center documents remote rescues, medical emergencies, to depth hoar and depth hoar-like snowpacks is to charity, and then realized that I was replicating evacuations, and “near misses,” NOLS analyzes always “expect the crown and the slide to exceed the daily 36-mile round-trip commute that Dick risk and safety practices constantly and has your expectation of how far it will propagate and took for decades starting in the 1960s to teach established risk management as a core component how large the slide will be.” math and science in the Hartford public schools. of its institutional culture. With such an extensive Experience with obscure stability conditions offered Connecticut may not be known for mountainous incident database, NOLS has established a systematic other workshop lessons. Doug Chabot recounted a near terrain, but this route features many steep climbs incident review process. Through documenting, miss during which he learned that even low-density and drops, which Dick navigated every work day, categorizing, and analyzing incidents, NOLS can learn powder snow can act as a slab and produce avalanches. until retirement, no matter what the weather – on from experience, strive for self-improvement, and The 1996/97 winter avalanche that demolished the his bike. continuously revise institutional program standards Shedhorn chairlift at Big Sky taught Scott Savage This daily commute no doubt helped him become when necessary. Leemon broke the ice and set a to never trust a rapid load on ice, a crust, or a hard the Connecticut time-trial champion in 1976. “Dick standard of transparency and critical self-analysis surface, regardless of whether or not facets exist at the was passionate about education and empowering for the rest of the workshop speakers. slab-weak layer interface. And, regardless of what kind students in Hartford,” his official biography notes. As Randy Elliot put so bluntly, “If you can’t be of avalanche problem is believed to be present, Lynne “He led bicycle and hiking clubs to reach out to good, be lucky.” Listening to renowned avalanche Wolfe urged professionals to ask, “How detectable is students, teaching them about the environment, practitioners recount heart-pounding stories of the problem?” and “How manageable is the problem?” self-worth, and respect.” narrowly avoiding getting caught in avalanches is with the intention of forming an honest, specific, Dick would die on his bike in an automobile unnerving. But, in recognizing how dynamic and and unbiased opinion of current snowpack stability. collision, but dying on a bike at age 84 speaks of complex the winter backcountry environment is, Professionals often tend to overestimate manageability; a life well lived. A friend immediately emailed, sometimes lessons are just learned the hard way and, even a small avalanche can pack quite a punch. “I will keep that image of him [skiing down steep as Karl Birkeland said, “as professionals, we need As risk management practices develop and terrain at an avalanche course] maintaining good to recognize when we have close calls and change become ever more ingrained in the work of outdoor form with a pack on, whooping it up with us on a our behavior.” Workshop speakers, fortunately for professionals, near-miss or close-call incidents bright sunny chilly morning.” My friend (as did I) all in attendance, walked away from their near-miss (where significant injury or loss is narrowly avoided) mistakenly thought Dick was merely (!) in his 70s incidents informed, grateful, and better prepared have become focused opportunities for learning. at the time, not his 80s. for the future. However, negative repercussions to outdoor Dick leaves behind his loving wife of 56 years, A recurring refrain was the importance of terrain professionals revealing such incidents – ranging from his son and daughter and their spouses, three selection. As Doug Chabot and Eric Knoff learned embarrassment to the loss of a job – are not pleasant grandchildren (two of whom he trained as they on several occasions, appropriate terrain selection to contemplate. Putting egos aside, the workshop became ski patrollers), and countless grateful fellow is crucial when digging snowpits. Speaking about speakers acknowledged the uncomfortable truth patrollers as well as students (whether avalanche, a slope outside of Cooke City, MT that he and his that if you spend years in avalanche terrain, sooner mountaineering, and emergency care from patrolling partner named “Almost Died,” Chabot pointed out or later you are bound to make a mistake. or math and science in Hartford). that it is never worth risking your life or your partners’ To view the GNFAC workshop presentation archives, lives (much less both at the same time) in order visit www.youtube.com/ Jonathan S. Shefftz lives with his wife and mondopoint- to collect data. In support of Chabot’s views, Karl user/AvalancheGuys. size 15 daughter (still too small for “Tech”-compatible ski Birkeland stressed the significance of route selection touring boots) in western Massachusetts, where he patrols and the importance of ascending slopes by the safest Andrew Kiefer graduated at Northfield Mountain and Mount Greylock. He is an up-track possible. Long-time Big Sky Snow Safety from Prescott College this AIARE-qualified instructor, NSP avalanche instructor, and Director Jon Ueland underscored the importance of past spring and attended the AAA governing board member. When he is not searching always choosing islands of safety that will offer real professional development out elusive freshies in southern New England, he works protection. “You only know you are in a safe zone if workshop during his internship as a financial economics consultant and has been qualified all the snow around you disappears and you are still with the Gallatin National as an expert witness in federal agency Administrative standing,” he said. Forest Avalanche Center. R Court, US District Court, and state courts. R 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 11 W mag·nate QRXQ?̓PDJ͇QýWQ˸W? Christian “Cabs” 1.a person of great influence, importance, or standing in a Cabanilla: 1978-2013 particular enterprise, field of Story by William Spilo business, etc. 2. a person of eminence or distinction.
Magnate. That is by definition who Christian Cabanilla was and how he will always be remembered. “Cabs” navigated his way through the Alaskan heli- ski business starting at the age of 18. First as a base attendant then working administration and on to operations, Cabs learned every facet of the business. Within five years Christian was guiding clients through the Chugach, and within the next eight years he was a certified helicopter pilot, flying the same clients to the same mountains he had guided them down before. I and dozens of others have had the privilege of working with Christian in the Alaskan heli skiing genre from near its inception. From Valdez to Cordova This is the last picture taken of Cabs, showing him happy and at peace in the mountains. Photo © Cedric Bernardini to Haines, Christian was an embodiment of the AK heli-skiing experience. With a keen sense of confidence and reverence for the mountains so Editor’s note: Christian Cabanilla died on March 3, 2013, run selection, snow science, and terrain mitigation, that you felt you had gotten there yourself. A truly in a cornice collapse while heli ski guiding near Haines, Christian led his clients through some of the most savvy guide.” Alaska. His name will be added to the AAA’s memorial list daunting terrain in the heli-ski world. “While taking part in any level of adventure, of professionals who have died in the line of work. A friend noted, “Christian was one of the most gifted Christian loved sharing it with others. Always a people I’ve ever met at calming people in a generally smile, with that signature ‘chuckle laugh’.” William Spilo has been a helicopter uncalming environment. He was poised, calculated, “The only pilot that would know the snow quality snowboard/ski guide for the and a true professional to all clients he guided and of runs miles away... he would be like, ‘I have to take past 17 years from Alaska to people he worked with.” you to Tiger Penis Soup,’ and be right about the snow Chile and Utah. He has guided A friend, inspiration, and leader – it is often been quality and stability when we got there! Love that.” snowboard mountaineering stated that Cabs was the glue that binds the distant “I skied many times with Chris and I appreciated trips in Europe, Asia, and relationships between all the mountain-enthusiast a lot his humor, sense for security while skiing, and North and South America. He brethren who knew him. Christian’s mountain savvy his good spirit at the pipeline bar in the evening. currently resides in Vail, CO. R led him to photo shoots in Europe, guiding expeditions Great guide, great consciousness. We will miss you in Antarctica, tours through the Canadian Rockies, Chris.” and chasing first descents in the High Andes of “One of or the most compassionate people I knew. South America. Whether via helicopter, splitboard, His kindness and generosity was given to everyone >ÌÊÛ>>V iÊ-V Ê or bootpack, Cabs was on the ascent armed with a around him, with a unique skill to make great friends ÕÀÀVÕÕÊÜÃÊ smile that crushed the ladies and the skill to make in an evening’s time!!!” the descent look easy. “He just goes to show that all of your dreams can ÊÕ`iià The following words further define Christian come true. You don’t have to choose just one. He was The National Avalanche School (NAS) began Cabanilla as the man people knew and the guide amazing at everything he did.” in the 1960s and continues to this day. The school who led them through the mountains: His supporting and loving family and all who knew manages its programs and updates curriculum “…delivering you to the most defining moment him will suffer the loss but cherish the memories. under the guidance of the National Avalanche you had yet to experience. He would arm you with Until the next my friend… Foundation and the NAS instructors’ steering committee. It provides state-of-the-art avalanche forecasting and mitigation training for operational snow science professionals such as ski patrollers, highway and backcountry forecasters, and snow rangers. / iÊ >ÃiÊvÀÊ iÌÀV unit system that suits their particular application.” No The school also ensures a solid avalanche one disagrees that a primary function of snow-safety foundation for helicopter guides, mountain ski Story by Greg Gagne operations is to clearly and unambiguously inform guides, and experienced backcountry skiers and I have long been frustrated by the reluctance of their user base of current and forecasted hazards. mountaineers. the United States to adopt SI (metric) as the standard And, for the most part, in the US this obviously means NAS instructors include some the most system of units and find it especially confusing in reporting in imperial units. knowledgeable and experienced avalanche reports related to snow and avalanches. As an avalanche I argue that it is time for avalanche operations to fully professionals and educators in the US. They professional and/or backcountry traveler, consider the embrace the SI system. Not only for communication impart skills to students that help assure students following areas where SI units dominate: between professionals, but also for reporting to will be capable of reducing inbounds avalanche the public. Furthermore, by continuing to adhere risk safely, effectively, and efficiently. In addition, s ALL SKI AND SNOWBOARD EQUIPMENT to imperial, I believe we are in fact bypassing an students will be capable of assessing avalanche s VIRTUALLY ALL SNOWPACK OBSERVATIONS AND PROFILES opportunity to further educate the backcountry danger in the backcountry, effectively recording s SNOW SAFETY AND RESCUE GEAR travelers who use avalanche advisories. and communicating stability evaluations, and s BEACONS AND RESCUE TECHNIQUES My argument is based on a few observations: making informed and rational decisions. s ALL COLUMN AND BLOCK TESTS This winter, all NAS students will attend 1. The rest of the world uses SI, so should the US. four days of intensive classroom and workshop Although most professionals correspond using SI, all The continued embrace of imperial in the US has been instruction from October 27-31, 2013 at Snowbird, US advisories and most reporting to the general public ignored by the ski and snowboard industry, as all gear UT. Four days of hands-on field work will take still adhere to imperial units. (There are exceptions is specified in metric units. Why can’t the avalanche place in late January and early February, with – for example, the CAIC allows users to select units industry adopt the same attitude? students selecting a location of their choice at when viewing data.) It is indeed odd that we travel Jackson Hole, Snowbird, Crystal Mountain, 2. The challenge for avalanche education. on 182cm skis, perform temperature profiles with or Arapahoe Basin. NAS provides a unique measurements every 10cm, identify 1mm facets, isolate Outside of those with a background in science, opportunity for students to spend four full days 30cm x 90cm columns, etc., but our communication medicine, or engineering, I often find students covering technical material with over a dozen of is most often in terms such as “6 inches of snow has are surprised to learn that virtually all snowpack the country’s leading avalanche professionals and fallen overnight” and “be wary of that layer of surface observations and stability tests are done in metric. And then complete the program by spending four days hoar down about a foot and a half.” yes, they often initially struggle with measuring the in the field with established regional professionals The argument in favor of imperial units is simple width of a 90 cm column. But if our language embraced in a ski area and backcountry setting. and compelling. Page 1 of SWAG states, “In the US, SI throughout, it would ultimately contribute toward For information and registration, go to www. personnel of avalanche operations and users of their more capable and better-prepared students. avalancheschool.org or contact Jennifer Larson products may not be familiar with all SI units. For at [email protected] this reason, individual programs should choose a Continued on page 32 ¦ R X PAGE 12 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î 2012/13 Avalanche Center Season Summaries
Rogue’s gallery in the Lesser Himalaya, near Manali, India, following the 2004 avalanche symposium. Abro got the highest skiing line in the nearby couloirs. l-r: Francois Valla, Karl Birkeland, Chris Pielmeier, Doug Abromeit, Indian guide, Martin Schneebeli, Ed Adams, Howard Conway, Matthew Sturm. Photo by Kelly Elder
N Forest Service National Avalanche Center years, I interacted more with Doug and learned about It came as a shock to all of us. An early morning call from what he was calling the National Avalanche Center a somber colleague who broke the unexpected news. Doug (NAC). He had some big goals for the NAC, but with had died suddenly the day before while mountain biking. only part-time funding for him, he was having a tough Had he been overweight, out of shape, a poor eater, or had time meeting the mission he had set forth. After finishing anything but a vibrant bill of health, maybe it would have my doctorate, he and I began working together to get made sense. But it sure was tough to figure that a guy like truly national funding for the NAC and to staff it with Doug, who obsessively ate the healthiest food around, who two individuals. The effort took over a year and involved was always sure to get his exercise and his sleep, and who attending numerous meetings and giving a multitude greeted each day and each person with his trademark grin, of presentations, but in the end we managed to get the had died. The finality of it was crushing, and the effect of Forest Service’s national recreation directors to buy off Doug’s passing quickly rippled far and wide through the on the program and fund it in 2000. avalanche community, not only in this country, but also Doug was a phenomenal NAC director and a great in Canada and even as far away as Europe. boss. He gave me some invaluable life lessons, including I always thought I’d be writing something like this for making sure that you mix in a bit of fun with work, Doug in support of the Honorary Membership award for especially if your work involves being out in the field the American Avalanche Association. It sounded like ISSW on the snow. He was a strong believer in our technology might come to Sun Valley a few years down the road, so that transfer program and we talked often, dividing up seemed like good timing. I imagine I will still do that, but work with him striving to provide enough time for me something rings a little hollow about doing these awards Doug Abromeit to pursue our tech transfer goals. As such, Doug had a after the person has left us; I wanted Doug to receive his backstage role in much of the tech transfer work I have well-deserved moment in the sun, fully knowing the 1948 - 2013 been able to do. In addition to his continued artillery impact he had on his colleagues and the broader avalanche program work, he also spent countless hours on the community. Looking at the deserving recipients of the Honorary Membership phone working with fledgling avalanche centers. When I look at the map of award, I am sure Doug would have been right in the mix. avalanche centers at www.avalanche.org, Doug had a hand in helping to guide I may not have all the facts at my disposal, but I would argue that Doug did and establish several of them, and he provided expert advice on a number of more for the military artillery for avalanche control program than anyone since different issues to all of them. Monty Atwater. Doug’s role was not as glamorous or dramatic as Monty’s stories Doug’s passing leaves a huge personal and professional hole for me. However, about getting the program started, but it was critically important for keeping the he left behind a legacy of bringing cohesion to an amazing community of program running through some difficult times. Doug was the driving force behind avalanche professionals. As the NAC has gone through some trying times the artillery users group (AAUNAC), and he served as the chair of that organization in a difficult budget environment, I have been gratified by all the words of from its inception through just last year. He was a tireless advocate for the program encouragement and support from throughout our great group. I know that the both at the Forest Service and with the Army during times when there were many community that Doug helped to foster will rise to the challenges ahead, and we questions about the usefulness of the guns, whether sufficient ammunition would will continue with our mission of improving public safety. In my mind, issues be available, and if other alternatives could be used as folks transitioned away from of TAR (like this one) showcasing our great avalanche center network are, outdated recoilless rifles and their dwindling ammo supplies. He was instrumental in a sense, a tribute to the supportive community of avalanche professionals in protecting the program during tough times, such as in 1994 following the 106mm and avalanche centers that Doug envisioned and helped to foster over his recoilless rifle in-bore explosion at Alpine Meadows that claimed the life of a Forest career. So, as you read through the season summaries for this past year, realize Service employee who was on the gun mount. that there is a little bit of Doug’s hard work, his passion, his enthusiasm, his I first met Doug on a trip through Utah in the early 1990s. I was struck by laughter, his smile, and his love for work and play, in each one. his big smile, engaging personality, and his love for his work. In the coming —Karl Birkeland 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 13 W Doug Abromeit PORTRAIT OF A LIFE WELL LIVED Doug’s story centers on Bottle Bay, an inlet on drove north, stopping in Sandpoint because, as Janet the south side of Lake Pend Oreille, near Sandpoint, said, “ We couldn’t go backwards.” Idaho. The family cabin there is a place to which Doug The next summer, the Surber sisters met Doug and returned again and again, at every stage of his life. The some of his Sandpoint friends, and eventually, Doug family’s roots in Bottle Bay extend several generations and Janet started dating. They were married a year back through Doug’s mother, Betty. Her family – the later, in August 1974, at Bottle Bay. The Abromeit boys Warrens – homesteaded there, while the Abromeits and friends arrived by boat, in beards and Western from Germany had settled further south, at Cocolalla shirts. Janet’s parents – Bob and Esther Surber – arrived Lake. The Warrens and Abromeits came together in from California in a car that had both forward and 1945, when Betty married Ed Abromeit. She’d finished reverse. Bob stood out in a red and white striped suit college, and he’d returned from the war in Europe, jacket. There was fiddle playing and dancing before where he served as a B-17 gunner. They raised Doug the newlyweds left for a honeymoon backpacking in Karl and Doug with Alaska Rendezvous Lodge Heli-Ski Guides and his younger brother Duane in Sandpoint. Betty Kokanee Park in British Columbia. For their first few near Thompson Pass, Alaska. Photo by Karl Birkeland taught third grade; Ed made furniture and owned a years together, Doug and Janet alternated winters in sporting goods store and built the cabin at Bottle Bay Sandpoint with summers in McCall. Doug taught for the highway avalanche-control program. Doug with his father-in-law, Herb. English in several Bonner County schools, taking a made it through this trial with lifelong friends in Little Doug grew up in the woods and on the water break one winter to ski patrol. Cottonwood, thanks to mentorship from Binx Sandhal around Bottle Bay and Sandpoint, hiking, hunting, One winter, Doug and Janet and many Sandpoint and Peter Lev, and thanks to his own disarming smile picking berries, and fishing with Ed, Duane, and friends took a train to Essex, Montana, for their first and winning personality. Herb. When Doug recollected this time in his life, he avalanche class. There they saw skiers making a turn For seven years, Doug and Janet lived in the Alta said, “I ate pretty healthy.” In high school, Doug and they’d heard about, the telemark turn. When they returned Guard Station; Doug marked the trail with a climbing some friends started skiing at the recently opened home, Janet and Doug skied away from the Schweitzer rope so they wouldn’t get lost in the canyon’s famous Schweitzer Basin, kindling both lifelong friendships Basin with a page torn from a magazine and started deep snow. Janet’s parents made the hike on numerous and a passion for skiing. learning the turn themselves. Many backcountry trips holiday visits, inspiring her father Bob to start skiing. Doug first left Sandpoint for the University of followed, including an attempt on the highest peak in In that time, Janet also commuted to Pocatello while Idaho in Moscow, where he graduated with a degree the Cabinet Mountains in minus-30-degree temperatures she finished a graduate degree in speech pathology. In in education so he could teach English and history. that left Doug and Janet’s toes numb for a week. 1992, they moved down to Salt Lake City in part so Janet He worked summers in Yellowstone National Park, would have less of a commute to her work at Primary first on a Blister Rust crew and then as a firefighter. The Inupiats in Disneyland Childrens’ Hospital and home health. Shortly thereafter, He finished his student teaching and returned to his In 1979, Doug and Janet broke their Sandpoint- Janet’s father Bob grew sick and died. Despite this hard hometown. Shortly after, in 1970, his father Ed died McCall rhythm and worked as teachers in Nuiqsut, a and painful loss, they went on to share their passions for suddenly of a heart attack; he was only 48, and the traditional whaling village on Alaska’s North Slope. It climbing, skiing, and yurt trips with a growing circle of loss left the family stunned and grieving. was a long, sometimes dark winter, and neither Doug friends. On many of these adventures, Doug and Janet nor Janet ever developed a taste for quaq – frozen were accompanied by their dog Julio, another rescue A '65 Mustang with No Reverse raw fish. But with Bob and Esther Surber’s help they dog, this time from a sheep camp near McCall. Julio was Suppose that we could go back to 1972 and ask brought 15 kids – none of whom had been outside an avalanche dog, Doug said, “But only if you have a this young Doug a question about his life-to-be. He Alaska – to Southern California, where they biked pork chop around your neck.” is 24, just back from a six-month trip to Europe with along the beach and toured Disneyland, Hollywood, In Doug’s first few years as snow ranger, he began a childhood buddy and working as a carpenter; he and Sea World. Teachers and kids alike returned with untangling the issues facing the programs using surplus has a shelter dog named Maggie, and his hair is long, fresh fruit or a taste for it. military weapons for avalanche control. He and the other even though it is 1972 in a small town in north Idaho. When Doug got a permanent job in McCall in 1980, snow rangers and winter sports administrators in the He is rooted in his home but exploring the wider Doug and Janet bought a house and moved there Salt Lake office brainstormed, dreamed and schemed world. In that context, one question about his life-to- full time. Doug loved smokejumping but also took various ways to improve the agency’s management be might seem improbable: “What would happen if the opportunity to use his writing skills drafting the of winter sports and avalanche issues. In 1988, the two blonde sisters from Southern California showed Payette Forest Plan. Doug and Janet returned each Forest Service established a National Military Artillery up in Sandpoint?” summer to Bottle Bay and Sandpoint, where the Coordinator position on the Salt Lake Ranger District; Given the obstacles Doug had encountered in the Abromeit and Surber families were coalescing. Doug was selected for this position. The next year, the previous few years, he can be forgiven for not imagining Chief’s office formally chartered Doug’s position as the the following answer: “Well, one of the blonde sisters Smokejumping to Snow Science Avalanche Control - Center of Excellence. Over the next and I would guide a group of Inupiat Eskimo school Doug’s deep friendships with his smokejumper several years, Doug and his co-workers developed this kids to Disneyland on their spring break. And bring brotherhood meant a lot to him. But he’d also been into the National Avalanche Center. Doug’s talents – his fresh strawberries back to the North Slope.” But that is, fascinated by snow since his first avalanche class. In sincerity, writing skills, and knack for getting people to indeed, part of what happened next in Doug’s life. 1985, he applied for several jobs – not all snow-related see and work toward a common interest – shone. His The two blonde sisters from Southern California – was offered two, and fortunately for the American ability to build and maintain relationships brought him were Janet and Pearls Surber. Janet, the older one, avalanche community, Doug chose a position as Little deep respect and friendships among his colleagues. had spent a few winters ski-bumming at Alta; Pearls Cottonwood Snow Ranger. It was a return to Alta for suggested they both take a break from college and visit Janet, but Doug stepped into a charged atmosphere. Back to Idaho and the NAC Sandpoint, where they had friends and thought they He was not only The New Guy in a canyon full of Despite their success in Salt Lake, Doug and Janet might find work and ski. The sisters had a ’65 Mustang experienced avalanche professionals, but the ski areas wanted to return to Idaho’s wide-open spaces. Doug with no reverse; their parents pushed them backward were rankled by a recent Forest Service decision to give down their California driveway, and the Surber sisters the Utah Department of Transportation responsibility Continued on next page ¦
Doug on the summit of Mt Superior, Little Cottonwood Canyon, UT, sometime in the mid- 1980s. l-r: Al Soucie, Doug, Roger Atkins, Doug's dog Julio, Bruce Tremper, Brad Meiklejohn, Doug and a group of Snowbasin ski patrollers watch the racers at the start of the 2002 Olympic Duain Bowles. Photo courtesy Al Soucie Downhill at Snowbasin. Photo by Karl Birkeland X PAGE 14 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î DOUG ABROMEIT continued from previous page knew that legendary snow ranger Butch Harper would be retiring; Doug’s experience and the funding that accompanied the National Avalanche Center made him a strong candidate. He got the position, and in 1994, Doug and Janet bought a house in Hailey and Doug started working on the Ketchum Ranger District. Doug’s time was divided between running the NAC and snow ranger duties, in which he was humbled to build on Butch’s legacy. Mostly by himself, Butch had maintained one of the longest-running avalanche hotlines in the country, and Doug continued that service. He gradually expanded it into a backcountry avalanche center. Janet continued her career as a speech pathologist, working first out of a rehab center in Twin Falls and then as a contract speech pathologist until she retired. In addition to their days of downhill skiing, Doug spent his retired time skate skiing, backcountry skiing, and climbing, often with Zorra, a red Australian shepherd mix (see photo at right). Each summer and many Christmases, they returned to Bottle Bay and Sandpoint to be with family. At work, Doug devoted his energy to institutionalizing the National Avalanche Center. In 1999, he and Karl Birkeland convinced the Forest Service’s regional recreation directors to formally establish the NAC and expand it to include Karl as an Avalanche Technical Specialist. As center director, Doug provided leadership and technical assistance to snow rangers and avalanche centers across the country, tirelessly striving to unite a disparate group of strong personalities. Behind the scenes, he negotiated time and again to preserve the Last Turns use of military weapons for avalanche control from numerous bureaucratic threats. Though ever youthful, Doug eventually retired in 2011 so he could with Abro spend more time with Janet, his family, Story by Blase Reardon and friends. While Doug’s passion for his work and Doug and Zorra, doing what they did best. Photo by Ed Cannady adventures were highly visible, he also It was the second week in April, and had quieter talents. He was renowned Doug and I were staring down the steep There was nothing hesitant about Doug’s first turns. as a mentor. The schoolteacher in him He dropped straight into the fall line, held it until he loved kids and he and Janet opened chute on the backside of The Funnel. had speed, then arced right through the two trees and their home to several teenagers, once The wind hadn’t touched the 8-10" of new snow, and it down The Funnel in giant, fast arcs. I let my dog go, and so a friend’s son could attend school looked like beautiful skiing. Usually Doug would be eager though I’ve never seen her move faster downhill, she and be in the outdoors, and again to to ski a line like that, but that day he didn’t have the energy couldn’t come close to catching him. I started laughing. Pearls’s son Andrew so he could work to boot back up. He’d been sidelined the past few weeks So much for vertigo. And so Doug. Stylish, smooth, and on the Ketchum District. At the time of with what was diagnosed as vertigo. Nausea and other fully committed, with no hint of the doubts he’d voiced his death, Doug was looking forward symptoms kept him in bed some days, but he’d managed earlier. When I reached him, he told me that the big turns to sharing the summer with two of his a short bike ride the day before. When we left the car, he’d were so he didn’t have to cross the fall line much and nephews, Alex and Nick. said, “I don’t even know if I can handle skinning.” risk aggravating his vertigo. But he was smiling, and I As might be expected, Doug was in He’d skinned to the top of The Funnel nonetheless, under could tell he was just immersed in being outside again, the midst of various projects when he heavy, dark clouds that aren’t typical of central Idaho. It was reconnecting with the snow, and happy in his body. passed. He was mentoring numerous warm, snowed off and on, and we had a popular backcountry That turned out to be one of Doug’s last days skiing, younger forecasters and professionals. destination to ourselves. It was a slow skin up, but not due to if not the last. Six weeks later Doug was gone abruptly, He was advising several Forest Service Doug’s vertigo or the trailbreaking. We were just busy talking. felled by a heart condition that was perhaps presaged offices on snow ranger positions. We hadn’t seen each other much in the past few weeks, and by the vertigo. He was again in the mountains he loved, He was contracting with the NAC we had some catching up to do. Our conversations that day with old friends he loved and had stood by for years. to help Karl with the transition and dove deep into difficult issues – aging and health and fears His contributions to the avalanche community are huge. the workload. He was moving into and frustrations. They were among the more meaningful Many of them are organizational and administrative, leadership of the National Avalanche talks I’ve ever had with a friend, and the memory of them like the creation of the National Avalanche Center and School and developing a class for it. has made his passing easier for me. his ongoing fight to keep military weapons available He was planning trips and anticipating We turned away from the chute and set up to ski down for avalanche control. Not glamorous stuff, yet critical his annual visit to Bottle Bay. He was The Funnel. Doug fell uphill while pulling off one skin. foundations. His more significant achievement, though, doing all this with his contagious smile “That wasn’t vertigo,” I said. “No,” said Doug. “Just may be that he simply pulled people together. Thanks to and the sincerity that left people who’d bumped a rock.” We were entering the slope from a rocky his disarming smile and deep, warm sincerity, the many met him once feel like they’d known knob with shallow snow and a pair of trees at the bottom. characters and iconoclasts in the avalanche community him for years. It was the kind of place I’d start into with slow turns, to around the world are closer and more united. Personally, feel out the snow depth and avoid a high-speed face plant I’m left with – and comforted by – the image of him Doug's story, above, was compiled from if I tagged a rock. Especially if I was worried about my dropping into The Funnel and arcing easily out of sight. a variety of sources and read by friends balance. I held my dog in a sit beside me. The last thing I It’s the person he was, and the person so many of us in and family at his memorial in June. R wanted was her tripping him up at a time like that. the snow world will miss. R 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 15 W Agency Avalanche Centers 2012/13 Season Summaries N Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center The center began issuing daily avalanche hazard bulletins on November Western Wyoming experienced below-average snowfall during the 2012/13 7, and issued bulletins every 12 hours for 165 days until April 21. Snowpack season. Conditions were dry and warm during the early fall with the first significant summaries were posted once a week for eight months from the end of September snowstorm arriving in late October. Mostly dry and mild conditions returned and until the end of May. A high danger rating was issued for a portion of our continued into mid-November. Abundant moisture began to move into the region forecast region on only two days of this season (December 17 and February at the end of November and continued until Christmas. December snowfall was 14). Extended periods of low and moderate hazard were common. Our center 144% of our 47-year average and created a decent base for the rest of the season. did not issue any avalanche warnings or watches and issued only one Special January was exceptionally dry, and below-average snowfall was recorded in Avalanche Bulletin during this season. February and March. April was moist. Improvements for this season included a redesign of the web version of our This season’s weather patterns favored the Teton Range, which received over daily avalanche hazard bulletins. These efforts included the addition of avalanche 400" of snow. Lesser amounts (330") accumulated in the Wyoming and Salt River problems when conditions warranted, and upgrades to the email version of these Ranges in the southern portion of our forecast region and on Togwotee Pass (290") products. A website and Facebook page were created for the Friends of Bridger- in the eastern portion of our forecast region. Teton National Forest Avalanche Center. Other projects included the development Surface hoar growth on an October melt-freeze crust created a persistent weak of a national map that uses Google map technology to display the daily avalanche layer that became the bed surface for deep-slab avalanches that occurred during hazard rating issued by other avalanche forecast centers in the country. This project a high-impact storm on December 8. No other avalanche activity occurred on this was funded by the American Avalanche Association and the National Avalanche weak layer in the Teton region after this storm. In the outlying areas to the south Center. Several centers have embedded this product into their websites. and east a base layer of depth hoar developed and was a concern for the rest of the Use in our forest was vastly increased, especially in December when our area season. A five-day storm cycle at the end of January produced the only Class IV was receiving abundant precipitation and other areas were not. The parking lot size avalanche of the season on February 1. It failed on a January drought surface. on Teton Pass was frequently full and often included vehicles from other states. This season was notable due to the lack of large avalanches and limited number of The number of calls to our telephone hotline continues to decrease and was 25% medium-size avalanches. There were only 16 Class III size avalanches, one Class less than the previous season. The center experienced a 15.5% increase in email IV size avalanche, and no Class V size avalanches observed. subscriptions to our avalanche hazard advisories. Website page views and unique Twenty-five people were caught and carried by avalanches. Of these, eight were visitor data for this season compared to the previous season had not been compiled partially buried, and three were fully buried. Six sustained injuries, and three were at the time of this writing. killed. The fatalities all occurred on very steep slopes. Two persons were swept In December two of our avalanche specialists traveled to West Yellowstone, into trees by very shallow slides and died of trauma on impact. A third was swept Montana, to participate in an avalanche education field session with avalanche down an extremely steep, narrow couloir and also died from trauma. All three of educators/forecasters from the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center. these events occurred during low hazard conditions. A Recreational Trails Program Grant obtained at the end of this season will There were four avalanche incidents when air bags were deployed. In mid- enable the center to expand avalanche education statewide during the next two February two snowmobilers were caught in a Class III size slide in the Salt River seasons. This scope of work provides funding for avalanche-hazard education Range. One deployed an airbag and floated on top of the debris without injury. presentations in 20 Wyoming communities per season during the next two The other, who did not have an airbag, was fully buried to a depth of three feet and seasons. Our intent is to involve avalanche specialists from nearby centers recovered by his companions without injury. This airbag likely saved the person when these presentations are provided in border towns such as Cody (Gallatin who deployed it and also allowed this group to focus all of its resources on the National Forest Avalanche Center), Evanston (Utah Avalanche Center - Wasatch), buried person and therefore also likely contributed to his survival. On March 9, and Laramie (Colorado Avalanche Information Center). a snowmobiler who deployed an airbag was overrun by debris and completely —Bob Comey, director buried except for a hand. He was also rescued by his companions. The two other incidents involved small slides. Continued on page 17 ¦
A ski mountaineer was swept to his death by sloughing snow as he was ascending Apocalypse Couloir in Grand Teton National Park on March 1. Apocalypse Couloir is the narrow slot with the prominent snow-covered talus slope at its base in the right-hand portion of this image. Photo by Bob Comey X PAGE 16 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î
From Patrick Graham Not much changed overnight. No wind, consistent So as I turned and looked up the couloir with my cold temps, and OVC skies overnight kept snow finger on the radio trigger, I realized he was already March 23, 2013 quality high. We were psyched. Upon arriving at our six turns into the run. Too late. I crossed my fingers Boulder Mountains, Sun Valley, Idaho ski run, I created a ramp for the guest and kicked some and watched as he came down the run, mimicking small cornices around to mostly investigate the snow- my tracks and then reaching my location safely. The story started the day before when I was skiing surface condition. The top third of the run was pretty I triggered this thing because I think I touched the (for fun) in some of the more confined and protected firm and scoured from moderate up-slope winds over sensitive spot. I had gained confidence the day before chutes further down the ridge. We just couldn’t get the past week, but the skiing was good for making and was caught by surprise as the slab was perched enough! The snow was super-low density, and all calculated, controlled turns. As I worked my way only on the apron and well below ridgetop start zones. stability tests we did indicated that there was a slab through the choke, the snow got markedly deeper, but I often think back to that run and wonder if I would (20-30cm) sitting on top of a complex matrix of old not chalky like an obvious windslab. As I was making have triggered the same slide if I had stayed way far wind slabs, decomposing crusts, and small faceted a right turn I noticed a crack shoot away from my ski skier’s right, out of the cross-loaded zone. grains. The slab just hadn’t acquired the critical mass tail, and the slab silently released and slowly started to Turns out these conditions were only present in to cause failure and propagation. gain speed. I stayed pretty calm, actually, and turned very specific locations in the Boulder Mountains. This being the case, we farmed a fair number of further away from the slab – just changing my course Across the Big Wood River Valley on Titus Ridge, for slopes, gradually working our way into less treed down the fall line every so slightly as I watched the example, there was a very different-looking structure and more alpine terrain. With no obvious instabilities slab move downhill and away from me. and problem. present, I requested that we save the pictured run, as I pulled into the bottom of the apron fully expecting I was guiding the following day and would love to to communicate with my client, whom I had specifically Patrick Graham is a backcountry ski guide for Sun take this guy down that pretty couloir. told over the radio to wait for me to stop before skiing. Valley Trekking. R 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 17 W SEASON SUMMARIES 2012/13 guest instructor at a NOLS instructors’ Level II avalanche course in the Tetons. continued from page 15 Closer to home, we developed an Urban Avalanches and Rescue seminar and field session for 21 local first responders; the course aimed to prepare them for N Sawtooth National Forest Avalanche Center accidents involving residents, motorists, and snow-removal crews. Attendance Staffing was up at our four regular Avalanche Awareness and Basics classes – with 156 Chris Lundy moved on to greener pastures in 2012, and Simon Trautman stepped people at the classroom sessions and 59 in the field sessions, despite bitter-cold from seasonal forecaster to center director, which meant less field time and more temperatures for the December session. All told, our education programs reached time addressing all those other things. He managed the transition with most of his over 700 people outside the regional avalanche workshops. hair, and his sense of humor and his composure remain intact. We replaced him with Scott Savage, formerly Snow Safety Director at Big Sky ski area. Thanks to Fundraising Scott’s experience and badger-like tenaciousness, he easily jumped from forecasting The Friends of the Sawtooth Avalanche Center continued to strengthen their at the scale of a large ski area to forecasting for five mountain ranges he’d barely organization, fundraising efforts, and support of the avalanche center. They seen. Blase Reardon returned for his fifth winter at the center and worked as established independence as a 501(c)(3) organization (outside the umbrella of the the old hand who kept advisories engaging, coordinated avalanche classes, and American Avalanche Association), signed a five-year collection agreement that steadily checked into numerous corners of our advisory area. provides 50% of the avalanche center’s budget, hired a new executive director, and provided funds to overhaul our web presence. The group now has 10 board Weather and Snowpack members, and their fundraising efforts included a fall mailing campaign, hosting The winter of 2012/13 didn’t follow usual patterns, providing us with some the Banff Film Festival and Incredible Raffle, and organizing the second annual great opportunities to see and learn from atypical conditions. First, there was The Skin It 2 Win It race at Dollar Mountain. December to Remember. Automated stations in our advisory area recorded snowfall Our heartfelt thanks go out to the Friends and to all those who contribute on roughly two of every three days, and by Christmas our upper-elevation their time and money to the avalanche center. We rely heavily on your support snowpack was 135-175% of the 30-year average. This deep, early season snowpack and literally could not do our jobs without you! didn’t metamorphose into widespread faceted layers, and although great riding —Simon Trautman, director and skiing conditions pulled far more people than usual into the backcountry, we received few reports of human-triggered slides or avalanche incidents (thanks to the unusual snowpack development). We issued a High danger rating only once that month, and our advisories focused on storm-snow and wind-slab avalanche problems, not the persistent and deep-slab problems we’re so accustomed to in the early season. The storms shut off at Christmas, and for the following three months we saw one- to three-week-long dry spells punctuated by brief periods of light snow, inversions, and/or bouts of strong, northerly winds. Several times, weak layers that formed at the surface were tempered by warming in the few days prior to snowfall, and the subsequent instability wasn’t widespread or prolonged. The season closed with yet more anomalous conditions – an extended period of unseasonably warm temperatures followed by a very winter-like storm. We saw a prolonged, wet loose avalanche cycle that circled the compass from sunny to shady aspects, then on the tenth day started all over again on sunny aspects. In early April a very cold low settled overhead, bringing one to two feet of snow, single-digit temperatures, and a powerful blast of northerly wind. On April 14 (the last day of our advisories), snowmobilers triggered a D3 slab high in the Boulder Mountains on a recently wind-loaded slope. This was the closest call of the season. The two riders involved – a father and son – survived uninjured after the father rode through the moving debris, picked up his son, and drove through the swash to safety. Whew. 55,000 acres of terrain burned over in 1967 in the Selkirk Mountains north of Sandpoint We ended the season with a snowpack representing roughly 87% of the 30-year is popular snowmobile country. Photo by Kevin Davis average and 78% of last season. On average, only 25% of the season’s snowfall fell after December 26. N Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center The trend of winter 2012/13 was set by what appeared to be a “mild El Niño” Operations prediction, meaning the Pacific Northwest should expect average amounts of Things Fall Apart is the most famous novel by Chinua Achebe, a Nigerian novelist precipitation with mild to cooler trends for temperature. This seemed to be playing who died this winter. The title’s also an apt theme for a series of equipment out in November with just average amounts of snowfall. The storm tracks picked up challenges that marked our winter. First, lightning strikes fried the radios at in December with very heavy snowfall and avalanche concerns developing due to two of our five automated weather stations. The strike at our Peak 2 station also multiple situations of unstable slabs over rain crusts. The first avalanche accident, blasted the anemometer into the next county, but miraculously spared the ancient no fatality, was an inbounds ski area burial involving wind-deposited storm snow CR10 data logger. We were able to get both stations back running before the over an ice crust. January was highly atypical for snowfall with almost no new snow forecasting season started in earnest, though the Peak 2 repairs involved moonlit accumulation for the month. We have never issued three Low hazard ratings in a skiing on just a foot or so of snow. In February, we discovered it is possible for row for the month of January. Surface hoar became a concern going into March, two snowmobiles to die within seconds of each other…which also resulted in which made for some challenging forecasting situations since the distribution of some moonlit skiing. the weak layer was highly variable due to wind and sun factors. Some mid-April We logged 145 days in the field, which exceeded a field day to advisory ratio of storms brought heavy snow and created narrow windows of instability; these were 1:1, and used snowmobiles for ~20% of that fieldwork. This year local ski guides the same storms that dumped several feet of snow in the Cascades, claiming the and snow-safety workers submitted over 200 observations to our professional lives of two people on Snoqualmie Pass. In all it was an average winter for snowfall, observations database. A big thank you to the guides at Sawtooth Mountain and the weather patterns often resulted in a more stable snowpack. Guides, Sun Valley Heli Ski, and Sun Valley Trekking, and to the ski patrols at Bald We began the year with a successful fundraiser for the avalanche center, hosted Mountain and Soldier Mountain ski areas. The public also contributed an additional by the Friends of IPAC. Of course there was an extreme skiing film to get everyone 77 observations. Next season we want to increase that number, with a focus on frothed up about the oncoming winter. Raffle items donated by local vendors motorized areas and the backcountry access areas around Bald Mountain. were auctioned off, and in all about $2500 dollars were raised. The Friends also We went live with the first phase of our website overhaul in March. Over the spearheaded the new website for IPAC. It is much easier to update than the old summer we will work on a new advisory and mountain weather format, and we gov website, and we can issue an advisory from the comfort of our own home will streamline some of the forecaster tools on the backend. This year’s numbers if we wish. With almost 12,000 hits, the public seems to like it also. We’d like to are as follows: go into next year with some IPAC brochures, hats, shirts, and stickers to increase our visibility and cred. I was thinking about a logo with something catchy like, s DAILY ADVISORIES AND GENERAL SNOW AND AVALANCHE UPDATES PUBLISHED “Beacon, probe, shovel – you packin’? IPAC.” s ^ DAILY ADVISORY VIEWS Outreach to all groups of winter recreation included focused classes for s 4HE ADVISORY WAS ACCESSED ^ TIMES THROUGH EMAIL WEB VISITS AND THE snowmobilers and backcountry skiers and the regularly scheduled free avalanche phone hotline awareness classes. Our partnership with Idaho Parks and Recreation continued to be a good one, and I hosted Scott and the new trails specialist on a ride in the Cabinet Education Mountains and showed them how we collect pit data for the Friday avalanche Our staff made 28 education presentations, about evenly split between professional advisory. We partnered on three snowmobile avalanche classes this year. I have and recreational audiences. Each of us presented at one of the regional snow and families attend several years running now, and they say the class is very well done, avalanche workshops – Simon at USAW, Blase at ESAW, and Scott at NRSAW. so that is great feedback on the education we are providing. Volunteers tracking Over 1000 people heard those presentations. Scott co-authored two papers at ISSW wolverines with Idaho Fish and Game asked us for avalanche classes. I’ve seen and presented a case study at the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center’s where wolverines go from their tracks, and they should be attending our classes Professional Development Seminar. We hosted a professional development seminar of our own for local snow workers in early December. Blase served as a Continued on next page ¦ X PAGE 18 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î
This rescue scenario concluded the field session of an IPAC snowmobile avalanche awareness class. Photo by Kevin Davis SEASON SUMMARIES 2012/13 continued from previous page too! IPAC was asked to present at the annual Association of Professional Patrollers, held at Schweitzer Mountain this year. IPAC presented on snowpack and weather variables and conducted a field session on how to evaluate snowpack stability. The workshop trains ski patrollers in various critical elements in their field and provides continuing education to advance their careers. It was a great experience for us as well. We continued our partnership with the National Weather Service in Spokane but did not issue an avalanche warning on the NOAA website this year. This year we concluded our workshops with one last class for the Spokane Mountaineers Mountain School – a field session in the Stevens Lake basin south of Mullan, Idaho, near Lookout Pass. (see photo below) Avalanche dynamics were above: Mark working hard to light the Chinook precip gauge fire just one Moore time! geared toward mountaineering, and the following day the group made a decision right: Mark stepping off the big platform into retirement. to attempt to summit 6838' Stevens Peak, but the day was snowing and blowing, resulting in a “no-go.” IPAC fielded increased requests from the Spokane and Coeur d'Alene community for avalanche education around the Lookout Pass area. N Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center Silver Mountain was a great partner at providing avalanche information and The 2012/13 season would feature a slide of epic proportions, one that eventually observations again this winter. Patroller Ty Foltz sent weekly pit data via SnowPilot. released after layering more than three decades of winter experience and running At Schweitzer, Tom Eddy, snow safety patroller, regularly updated IPAC with down the path to retirement. changing snow and weather conditions. Thanks to Scott Rulander and Gary Quinn This epic slide was of course the retirement of long-time co-founder and director of the Friends of IPAC for assisting with snowpit investigations this winter. IPAC of NWAC, Mark Moore, at the end of 2012 after 37 years at the helm. Kenny has good momentum coming out of this year with our partnerships, increased Kramer, a NWAC forecaster since 1990, became the center’s second director in outreach, new website, and help of the Friends group to hit the slab hard next year the mid-season transition. and plan for some website improvements and additional education programs. From Kenny: “With the help of Mark, Garth and I were able to receive a thorough —Kevin Davis, director crash course of the inner workings of NWAC before Mark’s departure. They were incredibly helpful in my first season, guiding and encouraging me through the season and most importantly, making sure they were available to field my questions that undoubtedly cropped up while working alone during the season. Having worked at the Seattle NWS office co-located with NWAC for the preceding six years, I already knew they were great guys. However, my eyes were opened to the extensive and supportive network of avalanche professionals in the Pacific Northwest. I tried to visit as many of our partners as I could during the season and I was always blown away with their knowledge and willingness to share.” Perhaps in response to Mark’s retirement, the weather pattern would not let him ride easily into the sunset. After a mild and somewhat dry start to November with no snow at our stations through November 11, the snow quickly piled up through the start of our forecast season on November 20. Mt Baker picked up 11" of water in six days with a cooling trend that resulted in about four feet of snow through November 22, with other stations receiving one to three feet. But it wasn’t really until December that the snow really started to fly. Long-term predictions in the fall of ’12 indicated an El Niño winter; one of potentially warmer temperatures and a lower than average snowpack. That forecast eventually fell by the wayside as ENSO neutral conditions prevailed. A strong jet drove cool storms off the Pacific beginning early in December and kept the snowpack building rapidly through the month. After 11" of water in the first week of December, Mt Baker (4210') surpassed 100" snow depth on December 8. Not to be outdone, Stevens Spokane Mountaineers learn about assessing snow stability before a summit attempt on Pass picked up over five feet of low density snow in just three days. Tree well/ Stevens Peak the following day. Photo by Kevin Davis snow immersion suffocation (SIS) messages accompanied the avalanche forecast 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 19 W during this time. The stormy and cool pattern lasted until Christmas Eve. The first avalanche warning of the year was issued on December 17, and deep, soft, storm and wind slabs were reported throughout the forecast area. A relatively isolated pocket of surface hoar in the Crystal Mountain area allowed for a remotely triggered soft slab avalanche three feet deep to bury a skier in the resort after the area opened in the afternoon. The slide initiated uphill of the skier in sparse trees in an area not targeted for control work or a usual slide path. The victim was not wearing a beacon, but a quickly organized search party of patrollers and public were able to find her and dig her out unharmed. From south to north, snowfall totals for December were impressive: 160" at Mt Hood Meadows, 128" at Snoqualmie, and 232" at Mt Baker. Late December and early January were uneventful with periodic weak systems and clear periods that allowed for surface hoar growth that was buried by subsequent light snowfalls. A stronger system impacted the area January 7-9, prompting another avalanche warning and a widespread natural cycle as snow changed to rain at lower elevations. Some slabs stepped down to buried surface hoar or a localized freezing rain crust from earlier in the month. A notable strong and stationary upper-level ridge took control in mid-January with most stations experiencing 12 days of no precipitation. One of the strongest winter ridges in years dominated the region; strong high pressure trapped cold air and fog in the 12/20/12 Snoqualmie Mountain phantom trees. Photo courtesy J Davis passes and lowlands while upper mountain sites basked in the sunshine and freezing levels near 10,000' for most of this period. on Granite Mountain who were climbing directly up an active slide path. The slide While this period was uneventful weather-wise, two separate avalanche accidents was triggered around the 4700' level, and the two surviving members went for a featured pockets of sensitive wind slab lingering above 5000' near Stevens and 1300' ride according to their GPS. The other accident involved a solo snowshoer Snoqualmie Passes. The Snoqualmie Pass area slide on Chair Peak resulted in a who had joined a large group headed up Commonwealth Basin to Red Mountain. broken arm for a pro guide. The slide east of Stevens Pass failed on a buried surface The Granite Mountain victim was not recovered for about a month due to weather hoar layer not destroyed during the previous storm cycle, while the Snoqualmie and avalanche concerns that complicated rescue efforts. area slide failed on a recent melt-freeze crust. The second half of April kept NWAC forecasters on their toes with special A moderate storm cycle resumed for the latter half of January with 2-4" of water avalanche statements issued for an unusually strong and cold weather system recorded for west-side locations and generally good bonding to the existing around the end of April. The winter-like conditions gave way to an unusually snow surface. A storm cycle at the end of the month was accompanied by some long stretch of warm May weather. More special avalanche statements were very strong alpine winds that loaded lee slopes lower than normal with reports issued for wet slides as freezing levels averaged above 10,000' from May 2-11. of sensitive soft slabs beginning further downslope off of Shuksan Arm near Mt This caused a rapid consolidation of the snowpack along with numerous Baker. Isolated wind slabs up to six feet failed on a mid-January freezing rain crust shallow, wet loose slides and a few large wet-slab or climax slides on steeper in the Mt Hood Meadows alpine during control work with explosives. bedrock surfaces. The snowpack had entered May around normal, but the January could be summarized by receiving roughly half or less the amount of warm spell led to a much faster retreat than the previous two spring melts. water (and snowfall) versus December and freezing levels averaging about 3000' —Kenny Kramer, director higher. The strong storms of December were not matched for the rest of the season, allowing many east-side telemetry stations to peak in snow depth in January. The NWAC 2012/13 Snow Depth Summary Chart lack of a lower or mid-elevation rain event in the northeast Cascades allowed 250 surface hoar layers from early and late January to become buried and reactive in field tests. Thorough field reports from the North Cascades Mountain Guides helped NWAC forecasters identify the PWLs, with the persistent-slab concern 200 showing up in their regional forecast for nearly a month. February was characterized by a split-flow pattern with weak weather systems arriving every few days. Snowfall totals for the month were about the same as 150 January but with cooler freezing levels. A more active storm cycle returned for the end of February with two to four feet of snow falling over the five-day period ending on February 26. Most natural avalanches were direct action, but some larger 100 Snow Depth (inches) Depth Snow slides failed on surface hoar formed during a lull on Washington’s Birthday, even on the west slopes. 50 A juicy atmospheric river with rising freezing levels took aim at the Pacific Northwest at the end of the February and into March. The warming trend and subsequent rain loaded earlier storm snow and caused another widespread 0 avalanche cycle. A very deep slab released in upper White Canyon on Mt Hood 1/3/13 2/7/13 3/7/13 4/4/13 5/2/13 5/9/13
during this cycle (see cover photo); luckily no one was caught. Worsening conditions 11/1/12 11/8/12 12/6/12 1/10/13 1/17/13 1/24/13 1/31/13 2/14/13 2/21/13 2/28/13 3/14/13 3/21/13 3/28/13 4/11/13 4/18/13 4/25/13 5/16/13 11/15/12 11/22/12 11/29/12 12/13/12 12/20/12 12/27/12 deterred many backcountry skiers, but rapid loading and warming caught one skier inbounds at Stevens Pass before the area closed early for the day. Mt Baker Stevens Pass Alpental Paradise Timberline After a warm and wet start to March, the first half was uneventful with light to moderate snowfall events falling on a stout rain crust. Strong and cool NW flow set up mid- to late March, delighting powder hounds as the period ended in NWAC Days with Avalanche Warnings or Special Statements relatively cold and light (and deep) snow for the Pacific Northwest. Four to six feet Past 21 Years (1993-2013) of snow fell for Mt Hood and the western Cascade slopes. Storm and wind slabs were active during the beginning of the cycle. The end of March and beginning of April were quiet with northerly slopes preserving the good snow. Just as NWAC and cooperators began to wind down the season, a cool and active period returned for the last 10 days of operations through mid-April. A vigorous trough followed by a strong Puget Sound convergence zone pummeled the central Cascades, especially the Snoqualmie Pass area where they received almost three inches of water at Alpental in just three days, ending April 14. Intense precipitation rates on Saturday, April 13, coupled with diurnal warming, created a dangerous and in the end deadly combination on this day. The base of Alpental averaged roughly one inch of snow per hour for most of the daylight hours. Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass would eventually close in the evening for avalanche control work with a max hourly precipitation rate of almost a quarter inch/hr recorded between 6-7:00pm. Control work that evening resulted in slides running down to and below I-90. Very sensitive storm slabs on April 13 turned back many backcountry skiers near Snoqualmie Pass. Unfortunately, two separate Snoqualmie Pass area accidents occurred on Saturday early in the afternoon; the first included a trio of climbers Continued on next page ¦ X PAGE 20 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î
December 28, 2012: Remote trigger on Gobbler's Knob takes out a host of tracks. Photo courtesy UAC SEASON SUMMARIES 2012/13 continued from previous page killed by trauma. Eight avalanche professionals from the Utah Avalanche Center N Utah Avalanche Center - Wasatch and the Utah Department of Transportation went in the next day to conduct the From my April 10 advisory: investigation. To say that this was part of a cathartic or healing process would be missing the point. We all travel in the mountains alone and all agreed that this While an east wind blows could have happened to anyone of us. The investigation was the easy part. The hard part was going in the night before to retrieve Craig at the base of the Kessler Friend looks cancer in the eye Slabs. Hardest of all was going to see his wife and six-year-old daughter. But each person killed in an avalanche has his or her own family and community, Magnolia tree blooms and their passing triggers waves of denial, shock, sadness, even anger. On January 18, a family snowmobiling in the Uintas stopped for lunch just off I often like to say that nothing good comes of an east wind…but sometimes there the groomed road of Mill Hollow in the west fork of the upper Duchesne River are good things that are coincident with it. Just ask the old man in the haiku. drainage. What follows may be more than a family can bear. Four young family One friend – a mentor – is cleared of cancer the day before…the following day members walk to the edge of what appears to be a packed trail to overlook a good friend – a colleague, a husband, and a father – dies in an avalanche. In my the upper Duchesne. The “edge” happens to be a cornice, which immediately advisory just after the accident, I was reminded of words my friend Tim wrote collapses, sending two boys Traven and Coleman Sweat (aged 7 and 14) over the from Glacier Bay years ago. Re-reading it reminded me of our lost colleague Craig edge, triggering another avalanche below. Each was fully buried and died from Patterson. Much of his heart was in Alaska, too. asphyxiation. This twin fatality stops us in our tracks. Many times people like to employ platitudes, “They were risk takers,” “They were doing what they loved,” “We camped on a gravel slope below White Thunder Ridge, “They shouldn’t have been out there,”…but this one leaves one speechless with and we might have gotten some sleep were it not for the damn sorrow. This family, too, will never be the same. Northern Lights, which arced across an ebony starfield like green A fourth fatality was a Pleasant Grove local, snowmobiling down along the smoke interspersed with dozens of red lightning bolts running southern end of the Manti-Skyline Plateau. James Childs, 32, was riding with a number of others when they all became separated, side-hilling and high-marking in ultra-slow motion. All the while, the sound of calving ice the numerous slopes east of Twelve Mile Canyon, just north of Interstate 70. When rumbled off the ridge above. It was like having the whole damn the riders regrouped, they noticed that one of their party was missing. He was philharmonic orchestra come over to play Beethoven for you at later found buried 4' deep from a 2' deep and 350' wide avalanche below a steep midnight. The mindless and ungrateful go to sleep so they can rise northeast-facing slope at 10,400'. He is survived by his wife and four children. There are tragedies and there are reasons to rejoice. This winter marked a time up in the morning fully rested and spiritually impoverished. where we investigated three full and complete avalanche burials with three “We are all in this journey together; we’ve either lost someone full and complete recoveries. This is a testament to teams being equipped and or will lose someone down the road. It’s the lesson we share of practiced with rescue gear and luck, as nearly every involvement one could argue the presence or absence of it. Famously, Shakespeare’s plays were categorized as impermanence and a reminder to be grateful for each day that we either comedy or tragedy. To wit – on Friday, January 11, a party of ski patrollers have with the ones we love. Lose some more sleep tonight, friends and avalanche educators on their day off decided to test the snow stability in – remember that we live charmed lives; remember that always.” the well-named Depth Hoar Bowl of Alexander Basin of upper Mill Creek. The terrain sits between Gobbler’s Knob to the west and Wilson Peak to the east. The At first glance, one might think that this last winter blended in with many second skier down the slope unintentionally triggered an 18" deep and 50' wide others; but the truth is each winter is defined as “unusual,” punctuated by real avalanche that washed around him but didn’t carry or sweep him off his feet. events with real people affected by close calls and, unfortunately, tragedy. If you The following day, another experienced party skied the remaining portion of the look at the pure numbers, we suffered our “average” number of fatalities across bowl, only this time it was the third skier on the slope that triggered the slide, and the state – four – but in terms of the mark it left upon communities and families, he was subsequently buried with the top of his helmet sticking out of the snow. particularly our avalanche family, it sits among that loose plurality of “second to With some amusement (that everyone was okay, and now there was little danger none.” By this I mean we, the Utah avalanche community, lost one of our own – left in that particular terrain), the next day’s forecaster highlighted the events and Craig Patterson – a Utah Department of Transportation avalanche team member asked, “Okay, any more takers for Depth Hoar Bowl?” from Little Cottonwood Canyon. On the afternoon of April 11, Craig was killed by an avalanche he presumably By the numbers: triggered high on Kessler Peak, a prominent and jagged mountain that is nearly Avalanche involvements reported to us included 51 caught and 34 carried, 10 wall-to-wall with avalanche paths, including avalanche paths that threaten Big partial and six full burials, and four out of 24 nationwide fatalities. Colorado alone Cottonwood Canyon. I say “presumed” because he was traveling alone that suffered nearly half of the national fatalities with 11. By comparison, the West had afternoon. He was carried nearly 1300' over a couple of cliff bands and was 34 avalanche fatalities for the 2011/12 winter. The Alta Guard Station in upper 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 21 W The UAC kept the same staff. Toby and Paige Weed ran the Logan branch; Craig Gordon the western Uintas; Bruce Tremper, Evelyn Lees, Brett Kobernik, and Drew Hardesty held down the Wasatch; Kobernik and Gordon shared the Manti-Skyline Plateau. Max Forgensi ably managed the office for the La Sals and Abajos in southeastern Utah. Paul Diegel continues to steer the powerhouse nonprofit side of the Utah Avalanche Center, raising over $360K for the year. Over 650 avalanche pros and enthusiasts attended last October’s Utah Snow and Avalanche Workshop; mc’d by a sleek and tanned Craig Gordon in his best formal Hawaiian attire – tuxedo and bowtie above the belt, shorts and flip-flops below. His patented Know Before You Go program has now reached over 165,000 youth since its inception in ’04. Drew Hardesty was the keynote speaker for the annual Skinny Skis Avalanche Awareness Night in Jackson and gave a standing-room-only crowd of 700 musings on The Past, Present, and Future of the Backcountry – Freedom and Responsibility for the Individual and Community.
Other news from the year: s 7ITH THE HELP OF 'ARAFA ,,# AND SPONSORED BY A GENEROUS GRANT FROM Backcountry.com, the UAC developed the first of its kind iPhone app and went live this spring. It allows users to get all the latest info as well as take photos Andy Rich examines a remotely triggered crown on the Park City ridgeline. Photo courtesy UAC and submit obs to the UAC. s 3TEVE !CHELIS LONG TIME BOARD MEMBER 3EARCH AND 2ESCUE )# SKI PATROLLER Little Cottonwood Canyon, with annual snow measurement going back to the author, and philanthropist, created and developed an exhaustive online place- 1944/45 season, recorded a well-below-average 381.5"/33.13" (snow/water as names map on Google Earth to aid in communication and search and rescue measured November 1 - April 30) for the year, 76% of average. We didn’t see any missions (wbskiing.com). Water- and tear-resistant maps were also tough to overwhelming avalanche cycles or struggle with any widespread or significant keep in stock, with all proceeds supporting the Utah Avalanche Center. weaknesses for the 2012/13 season. s /UTDOOR 2ESEARCH /2 AND +,)- CONTRIBUTED GENEROUS WINTER GEAR KEEPING the staff comfortable and (some would argue) professional during field days. A couple of weather events that caught our eye: s .EW AVALANCHE INFORMATIONAL SIGNS WITH BEACON CHECKERS WERE INSTALLED AT s &OUR RAIN EVENTS IN THE LAST DAY OF .OVEMBER THROUGH THE FIRST WEEK OF $ECEMBER many trailheads. (a portent of things to come?) s 7E CONTINUED DEVELOPING A WEBSITE UTILIZING hBASICv AND hADVANCEDv PAGE TO s 4HE hUPSIDE DOWN STORMv OF *ANUARY THAT PUT A FOOT OF SNOW IN THE customize our user needs and will continue refining this for the 2013/14 season. mountains and up to 20-44" in the valleys and mid-elevations, followed by… s ! &ORECASTERS "LOG WAS A GIANT SUCCESS WITH OVER TOPICS SUBMITTED RANGING s !S 0ROFESSOR *IM 3TEENBURGH OF THE 5NIVERSITY OF 5TAH -ETEOROLOGY $EPARTMENT from Early Season Faceting, to Effectiveness of Airbags, to Slope Steepness, to put it (on his blog www.wasatchweatherweenies.com) “The Mother of All Danger in the Danger Ratings, as well as Case Study: The Effects of Solar Radiation Inversions” – A bullet-proof ridge of high pressure parked itself over Utah, and Temperature on the March 4, 2012 Avalanche Cycle (see TAR 31-3). sending temps down to -46°F (near Logan) and -21°F (Solitude). Not coincidentally, —Drew Hardesty, forecaster declining air quality in the valley made national news, comparing our choking smog with areas of China. Continued on next page ¦ Craig Patterson 1979-2013 Near the end of last winter on April 11, 2013, we suffered the tragic loss of our good friend and colleague. Craig Patterson died in an avalanche accident in the Wasatch backcountry while working for the Utah Department of Transportation. He was 34-years old. (The full report is at utahavalanchecenter. org/avalanches/accident-kessler-slabs). Craig was born in Detroit, Michigan, and he grew up in Pittsburgh, Little Rock, and Lausanne, Switzerland. Early on, Craig developed a love of the mountains and eventually obtained a degree in geology at Miami University of Ohio. After completing a thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail in the spring of 2001, he moved to Alaska to be an avalanche instructor and guide. Here he not only fell in love with Alaska but also his future safety program will be felt for many years to come. face laying only a few arcing turns only to end the wife Renae. Together they moved to Utah where they He developed great skill at working with remote run with his perfect and legendary yard sale. He had made a home for their daughter Kaya. weather stations and a willingness to work on those great skill at that maneuver as well. So much so that Craig spent time working for Black Diamond things during even the worst of conditions. I often sometimes I wondered if he was doing it just for my Equipment and continued his passion for the wondered if he actually enjoyed getting pelted by enjoyment. Whatever the case, Thanks Craig. You were mountains, where his accomplishments included blowing graupel while hanging from his harness high taken from this place far too soon, leaving the world climbing and skiing in South America and summiting in a weather tower. a little less bright. But something that we’ll never be Denali. He became a Utah Mountain Adventures guide Craig’s adventurous spirit was palpable and left without is the memory of your shining spirit and and AAA-certified instructor. At UMA, his skill as an emanated to those around him. He genuinely enjoyed your passion for life. instructor really began to shine when he re-wrote their life and lived to spread that feeling to his friends and In honor of his spirit and to celebrate Craig’s life, avalanche training program and inspired hundreds loved ones. People were drawn to Craig not only a memorial service was held at Albion Grill at Alta. of budding avalanche minds. He eventually found because he was humble and fun to be around, but also Donations to the family can be made to the Craig his dream job as an avalanche forecaster for the Utah because he was just really good at most things he tried. Patterson Memorial Fund at any Key Bank or mailed to Department of Transportation in Provo Canyon where The list is long: skiing, climbing, biking, trail running, the Craig Patterson Memorial Fund, 520 Crestview Dr, he worked for six years. Last winter, he transitioned rafting, kayaking, biscotti baking, mountaineering, Park City, UT 84098. Also, his family has suggested that to Big Cottonwood and Little Cottonwood Canyons marriage, fatherhood, artillery gunning, VW buses, anyone with a similar passion for avalanche education where he continued as a forecaster. cooking, carpentry, guitar… make a donation to one of the many avalanche Craig had an insatiable drive and a powerful stride With all his skill, he also knew not to take life too education institutions. to explore the mountains that was hard to match. That seriously and knew how to make you laugh and drive extended also to his work at UDOT where his conversely, laugh at himself. I will forever miss Bill Nalli, UDOT avalanche forecaster, wrote this story influence and contributions to better the avalanche watching Craig slice his way down a big mountain and took the photos as well. R X PAGE 22 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î SEASON SUMMARIES 2012/13 but was purdy banged up and then had to endure a slow walk out. The twosome continued from previous page was later helped out by Glacier National Park rangers. The weak layer in this accident was a thin layer of facets over an ice crust. Cooperative endeavors to coordinate education offerings were enhanced through the FAC gaining a new partner in Big Mountain ski patrol, who offered a Level I and Level II for backcountry recreationists in the Flathead. In addition, the Kootenai National Forest offered two Level I classes with 60 students total, plus five two-hour avalanche awareness sessions with 90 students in total. FAC also offered one free Advanced Avalanche Awareness class with 50 attendees (down from two the previous year) in the first weeks of January. Finally, the FAC presented a Level 1 to 12 interagency government personnel. The Glacier View-Hungry Horse Ranger District of the Flathead National Forest and the Flathead Nordic ski patrol installed five avalanche beacon checkpoints at popular snowmobile trailheads and backcountry access points to promote safe backcountry travel in our region. The goal was to get more backcountry users to realize that transceivers are a necessary safety device in avalanche terrain. The Northern Rockies Avalanche Safety Workshop donated $3500 to the Nordic patrol for the beacon checkers. —Tony Willits, avalanche & snow specialist
Rescue Drainage below Nyack Mountain, late March, about a week after the Pineapple Express arrived in northwest Montana. Photo by Tony Willits N Flathead Avalanche Center The winter of 2012/13 was a first for the Flathead Avalanche Center (FAC) with a new website and new personnel to aid in producing advisories for the backcountry recreationists of northwest Montana. This change came about after the retirement of Stan Bones who guided the avalanche program for over 30 years. Derek Milner Class 4 deep-slab avalanche on Seattle Ridge’s infamous “Repeat Offender” slide path. designed the website with lots of volunteer time while accomplishing his day job. Photo by Kevin Wright The site seemed to work well for a broad range of users within the local avalanche community. Joy Sather, a not-so-new face around here, continued to provide quality N Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center data from her observations as well as advisories and education endeavors. Another Feast or famine. A so-called “average winter” looks normal until you start to familiar face, Seth Carbonari, provided good observations and advisories as well, look at the details. This season was bipolar, back and forth, alternating between all and served as a liaison to the avalanche community for educational opportunities. or nothing. Following the deluge of rain during ISSW in Anchorage, October and Kootenai National Forest partnered with us in providing observations and an November were mostly cold and dry. The shallow snow that was on the ground advisory skeleton two to three days per week via long-time contributor Jon Jeresek. became nothing but facets, laying the foundation for the rest of the winter. Yet another regular voice in providing observations to FAC was local ranger Jason We went through a historically dangerous period this year – starting on Christmas Griswold and his colleagues from Glacier National Park. Eve and continuing through mid-January. Our very weak and shallow snowpack In response to public requests, FAC increased advisories from two days per was overloaded by three solid weeks of stormy weather, ending in a thick and week to three: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Pit profiles, pictures, and videos heavy maritime slab sitting on a continental weak layer. Very large and destructive graced the advisories in another response to input. Our website included an active deep-slab avalanches were common across the region. “Observations” page that was a big hit and contributed pictures and observations for Human factors were significant at this time, as early season skiing and riding had our northwest Montana region with 54 observations submitted from a broad array been poor and the copious amounts of new snow coincided with the Christmas of contributors that also included the BNSF safety coordinator, Ted Steiner. holidays. As the snow stacked up we began a long stretch of issuing avalanche The winter of 2012/13 was a good one for northwestern Montana. December warnings through the National Weather Service as well as rating 23 consecutive went well, but by mid-January we were hit with high pressure that hung on for days with a high or considerable danger. Public feedback was enormously positive, three to four weeks. Snow accumulations picked up again in late February and and people seemed to be heeding the warnings and taking extra precautions. early March. By the middle of March the real warm up came with a Pineapple However, there were a couple close calls as people tested the limits of this Express that affected weather in our region and up into British Columbia. This backcountry snowpack. The first, on January 2, was a large full-depth avalanche produced a moderate avalanche cycle of wet-slide activity. The latter part of March triggered by skiers on a very popular ridge called Tincan. The group was traveling brought great spring conditions with sunny clear skies and great skiing. in relatively steep terrain, given the known deep-slab problems and large avalanche Overall we had a warm winter with only very short periods of temperatures potential. They followed good travel protocol exposing one person at a time, and bouncing near or below zero. Periodically our freezing levels would climb to consequently only one person was caught and carried – luckily ending up okay. The above 6000' in two or three different warming events, accompanied by rain. The event was not a surprise to our forecasting staff as we tracked the problems. warm winter instigated a lower than normal snowpack below 5500' and about The second near miss was at the site of the 1999 avalanche that killed six 116% above 5500' in elevation at the time of this writing. Northwest Montana had snowmachiners off Seattle Ridge, commonly known as Repeat Offender (see several bouts with temperature inversions along with a high-pressure system that photo, above). Again, the deep-slab problem was the culprit. This one occurred settled on us through mid-January resulting in surface hoar development, but the on January 8, as the danger began to taper but still earned a solid considerable warm ups tended to mitigate those weak layers. rating. The avalanche was remotely triggered by a snowmachine near the upper Northwest Montana only had two documented avalanche incidents: the first a flank. The slide released full depth, over 1000' wide and up to 8' deep. It was very skier on Christmas Day who was partially buried and did not sustain any injuries in fortunate that no one was caught, as the debris ran far enough to cover an area a very small slide in a where snowmachiners often congregate. Following that avalanche, skiers and popular backcountry riders noticeably subdued their terrain choices. skiing destination. Other avalanche programs in the Girdwood/Turnagain Arm region were also O u r s e c o n d challenged by the early season weak layers. Alyeska Resort spent months triggering incident involved a avalanches to the ground, stripping all the snow off their steep terrain multiple backcountry skier and times. They employed some modern public relations techniques, releasing a snowboarder in the YouTube video of their avalanche-reduction efforts to educate the impatient public Elk Mountain area about the unprecedented dangers. The snow-safety teams did an admirable job in Glacier National managing terrain and mitigating the problems as best as they could. Park during an early During February snow kept falling in small amounts, and by early March the January storm cycle. November weak layers were buried meters deep. Finally, after well over a month Fortunately only one of no signs of activity on our basal weak layer, a solid stretch of low danger ensued of them was partially allowing much of our signature steep terrain to be safely skied. buried after being On the operations side of things we had several new developments. We started sifted through a gully the season with a new website design, incorporating elements developed by Elk Mountain aspect of accident on January 8. Photo by Tony Willits of scattered saplings avalanche centers in the lower 48. For the first time the Friends nonprofit and the 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 23 W
Alyeska’s North Face, one of several large deep slab avalanches triggered by Alyeska patrol. Photo by Heather Thamm MWAC Snow Ranger Frank Carus investigates a human-triggered avalanche by a group of Forest Service entered into a legal collection agreement to allow community money six skiers on 4/4/13. Crown length 150m, avg depth 80cm, 40-degree slope at initial failure, to fund forecaster salaries. With decreasing federal budgets, this will give us an CLP- Resistance/Hardness P+ --> P- failing on 1cm crust. Photo by Joe Klementovich essential buffer to continue providing high-quality service by augmenting baseline funding provided by the Forest Service. BRP/Skidoo and retailer AMDS loaned hard to find. But if you like to see the gullies filling in and avalanches running us a 2013 Summit 800 sled for the year, allowing us unprecedented access to the long distances, this wasn’t the winter for you. It wasn’t until late March that large far reaches of our forecast zones. We also teamed up with BeadedStream LLC who avalanches finally began to run. It took an entire season, but it finally looked like installed and operated a vertical temperature array to monitor real-time snowpack we might actually have a reasonable good spring ski season. temperature every 10cm in the heart of our forecast zone. All these contributions In the end, 2012/13 was the winter of up-slope snow. Although orographic lift is help us continue providing forecasts and education to the public. a very usual snowfall producer for our mountains, it really stood out this season. The winter of 2012/13 brought some stability to the avalanche center, with For the four months from December through March we had measurable snow on staffing finally reaching optimal levels to maintain our level of service. Wendy, 96 of the 121-day period for a frequency rate of 79%. Although we certainly had Graham, and Kevin all returned from previous seasons, and John Fitzgerald joined our share of synoptic-scale snowstorm events, the vast majority of precipitation the team in Girdwood. Alex Mclain continues to observe the Seward District days would categorize as localized up-slope snow events. Due to many periods of areas and writes the Saturday summit advisory. Sean Fallon from Alaska Pacific scant up-slope snow plot measurements, we joked nano-micro-scale forecasting University joined us this year for an internship, serving as a reliable field partner may be a better option to our usual micro-scale system. and creating a useful paper on common storm patterns in Turnagain Arm. With In addition to avalanche forecasting MWAC also has lead-agency responsibility for this level of staff, community, and Forest Service support I am confident that we search and rescue events in our area. In recent years there seems to be a trend in our can maintain a high level of quality and competence to continue providing the SAR incidents. We’ve been responding to fewer overall incidents, but seeing more best avalanche forecasting product to the public in Alaska. avalanche close calls and fatalities. This trend continued in 2013. Two avalanche —Kevin Wright, director incidents stand out as examples of note for close calls and serious accidents. First, in late January a team of 12, broken into four roped teams of three, was involved in an avalanche in Central Gully. Although all teams were carried at least a short distance, by a miraculous stroke of luck, only one rope team was carried to the bottom, and no one was critically injured. The other three rope teams were able to rappel the route without incident. The other notable incident in 2013 involved a 24-year-old solo ice climber who was killed when he triggered a slab in the middle of a three-pitch alpine ice route. In both of these incidents, avalanche danger was rated moderate. This prompted MWAC Lead Snow Ranger Chris Joosen to blog his thoughts on Moderate danger. Those who know Chris well understand that it’s worth your time to read if Chris goes so far as to blog about it.
Excerpted from Chris Joosen’s blog post of April 7, 2013 www.mountwashingtonavalanchecenter.org/author/chris/ In recent years there has been an increase in the backcountry use in avalanche terrain in winter, particularly in March. That fact, coupled with an increase in avalanche class participation, and visitors equipped with avalanche safety gear more individuals are getting into avalanche-prone conditions. It really is critical to After a mid-April warm up with some rain, a small but deep wet-slab pocket released naturally understand that Moderate is not the new Low as I’ve heard it referred to as, and at 12:30pm on 4/19/13 beneath an area of running water. Photo by Joe Klementovich it’s not only at the 20% mark as the second in a scale consisting of five ratings. It is second on a scale that attempts to predict a natural occurrence that will always N Mount Washington Avalanche Center have an associated degree of uncertainty. Winter 2012/13 won’t go down in the record books as a stellar season on Mt As we have seen worldwide so many times before, a human-triggered avalanche Washington. It’s been a few years now since we’ve seen what we’d call a “good under Moderate or High can very often have the same results…not good. winter.” However, there was enough snowfall and other things going on to keep Certainly I am not saying Moderate and High are the same, but what I am saying is MWAC forecasters/snow rangers on our toes. Whether it was waiting for snow in human-triggered avalanches happen under a Moderate rating…period. This reality December, watching rain fall in late January, or admiring the long-awaited larger plays out every day, all winter, across the slopes of North America. Understanding snowstorms in February, we were able to do it with smiles on our faces. this well I therefore have a respect for the “Moderate” snowpack, as on a given MWAC issued a total of 145 advisories between December 18 and May 26. The day it can be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. initial General Advisory was issued on the 18th, but it wasn’t long before the I comprehend that to live a long life working in avalanche terrain I must never first 5-scale advisory was issued on December 26. That’s what happens when the believe I know exactly what’s going on all the time, so I follow protocols to month of December gives 40% more snow than the historical average, and 90% of mitigate risk. We travel one at a time to islands of safety, we don’t travel over or this snow comes in the second half of the month. If this had been a “normal” early under our partners without their ok, and always think through the consequences season, we would have started seeing good-sized avalanches before Christmas. of our intended routes. So…take the Moderate rating seriously, respect it, and However, this year there was very little snow on the ground by mid-December, realize there can still be plenty of fun to be had in our snow for the skilled and so this stretch of snowfall only began the process of filling in the ravines and gulfs experienced user by knowing what to look for as you plan your route or travel of the Presidential Range. through it. As a natural force, there will always be a degree of uncertainty in The promise of the good season that started in late December didn’t last very regards to avalanches and because the consequences are so high, namely our long. Once the New Year rolled in, the snowfall rates dropped tremendously. With lives, respect and awe must be our starting point. a grand total for the month of 36", 68% of the January average, it quickly erased See you in the hills. Chris the memory of the snowy end to 2012. As if to add insult to injury, the all-time high temperature for the month of January on Washington was shattered, hitting Spring on Mt Washington would not be complete without crowds making 48°F on the 13th, followed by a 2" rain event in the last two days of the month. the pilgrimage to Tuckerman Ravine. This is when the majority of our incidents Heading into February and March, New England snow lovers and avalanche and accidents typically take place, but aside from one busy day, there were few aficionados were wondering if the second half of the season would be similar to injuries to respond to this season. We suspect this was due to a combination of the first? But a total of 156" in these two months was just what the doctor ordered. factors, such as an increasing tendency to come on days when conditions are Or was it? Digging deeper into the data reveals that though this is about 60% more favorable and hazards are less. This past season, one contributing factor was the snow than we typically get during this period, the snow water equivalents were 2.4" below normal. So if you were hoping for light-density powder, it was not too Continued on next page ¦ X PAGE 24 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î SEASON SUMMARIES 2012/13 continued from previous page lack of good weather on Saturdays, which kept the crowds down. Most of the good weather came on week days, which worked well for keeping a steady flow of traffic to the steep slopes. It would not be a complete picture of the season if we didn’t acknowledge the good work taking place off the mountain. Starting long before the snow fell, the second annual Eastern Snow and Avalanche Workshop was held in North Conway, NH. This was deemed a success, so another is in the works for November 9. Also behind the scenes, we work with two nonprofit groups: Friends of Tuckerman Ravine and Friends of the Mount Washington Avalanche Center. Both groups helped support our work with very successful fundraisers this season. We appreciate all they do for us so we can help fulfill our mission. The Mount Washington Volunteer Ski Patrol continued to expertly yet humbly assist skiers in the springtime months. Because of this work they were distinguished with the NSP “small patrol of the year” for the Eastern Region. Our jobs would be very different without this group of committed volunteers, so our hats are off to them. —Joe Klementovich, Frank Carus, Jeff Lane, and Chris Joosen, snow rangers
N Cordova Avalanche Center Natural deep persistent slab avalanche occurring on December 25, 2012 in Echo Bowl If you attended the ISSW last September in Anchorage, you experienced some near Echo Summit, CA. Photo by Justin Befu of Alaska’s extreme weather. To put Cordova in perspective, we received 50" of rain in September. Rain continued into October, but the weather began to flip flop. The nonprofit Sierra Avalanche Center’s board of directors raised $91,567 with a Spells of clear skies brought drastically cold temperatures, while warm storms variety of fundraisers despite the dry January, February, and March. The Ski Days brought rain to our local peaks. Fundraisers that traditionally bring in the bulk of the fundraising by the not-for- By December, enough snow had accumulated for the avalanche season to be profit performed reasonably well despite the overall lack of snowfall. in full swing. Several medium-sized avalanches occurred during storm events. The most significant sponsors for the 2012/13 season were: Alpenglow Sports, The snowpack continued to grow through the month until temperatures rose Alpine Meadows ski area, Heavenly ski area, Homewood Mountain Resort, dramatically around the New Year and remained unseasonably warm through Kirkwood ski area, Lake Tahoe Television, Liftopia, Mt Rose ski area, Northstar at most of January. The snowpack became isothermal and glide cracks started to Tahoe ski area, On the Snow, Polaris, Porters Lake Tahoe, Sierra at Tahoe ski area, appear. The ski hill lost so much snow that it looked like it was done for the season. Squaw Valley USA, Sugar Bowl ski area, and Truckee & Tahoe Independent Radio Then, in February, the freezing line started coming down. The mountains quickly KTKE 101.5. Each of these sponsors provided cash, goods, or services in excess of accumulated snow as strong winds filled in all features. By March, snow began $3000. The board still contributed some of the funding for the program and held accumulating at sea level. Again, several medium-sized avalanches occurred during onto enough savings to provide a financial cushion in the event of future lean storm events. Rapidly increasing days brought some strong sunshine, but cool air times. The board added a paid program manager position to its ranks in hopes temperatures limited warming. The cold air continued through April. of leveraging more funding for the program in the future. As of this writing, the mountains still haven’t begun their spring thaw. Large The board continued to fund two field observer positions for Steve Reynaud and Travis cornices loom. No avalanche has yet reached the highway. In early April, one Feist. The observations provided by Steve and Travis remain an invaluable asset to the snowmobiler was reportedly buried and rescued by companions with no injuries. avalanche center. Their data, analysis, and willingness to dig deep into the snowpack —Steve “hoots” Witsoe, title??? help make the avalanche forecasts more accurate across the entire forecast area. On the Forest Service side of things Andy Anderson and Brandon Schwartz continued in their roles as permanent avalanche forecasters with the Tahoe National Forest. The implementation of these positions highlights the Forest’s commitment to the program and its long-term importance. Monies from the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit ($23,000), Region 5 ($17,000), and Region 4 ($6,650) echoed this message by providing 50% of funds to operate the program this year. Over the course of the winter we issued five early season conditions updates and 147 daily avalanche advisories. These products covered the Sierra Nevada Range of California and Nevada from Yuba Pass south through the Lake Tahoe Basin and Carson Pass down to Ebbetts Pass. This spanned areas of the Tahoe National Forest, Humbolt-Toiyabe National Forest, Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, El Dorado National Forest, and Stanislaus National Forest. This season website traffic increased in page views by 2.5% and unique visitors by 17% over the previous busiest year. A total of about 501,067 page views from 83,068 unique visitors were recorded this season. A new single day record of 14,247 page views was set on December 26, 2012. We launched a new website in the middle of April, collaborating on the design and construction of unified overall appearance and presentation with other avalanche centers in Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Our users continue to Natural deep persistent slab avalanche occurring on December 23, 2012, in Drifter Bowl send us positive feedback on the accuracy, reliability, usefulness, and timeliness near Donner Summit, CA. Photo by Andy Anderson of the forecasts and other information provided by the avalanche center. The winter of 2012/13 once again exhibited the fundraising and management N Sierra Avalanche Center strengths of the nonprofit Sierra Avalanche Center (SAC) in partnership with Tahoe Winter got off to an early start. The first storm of the season deposited 1.5' National Forest. The proven business plan between these two organizations goes to 3' of snow in late October. Additional snowfall events during the month of beyond typical Friends Group support with the SAC providing 50% of the avalanche November led us to start daily avalanche advisories on November 16. Storm center’s total operating costs for the season. This ever-evolving relationship, events continued to impact the forecast area with a rain-changing-to-snow event executed through an annual operating plan and collection agreement, allows the on December 2, setting the stage for a persistent weak layer of near-crust facets. SAC to collaborate with the Forest Service to provide continued avalanche center Snowpit data targeting December 2 and December 12 near-crust facet layers with operations while collectively focusing on future development. the Propagation Saw Test and Extended Column Test gave a 10-14 day lead time —Brandon Schwartz, forecaster on forecasting persistent slab avalanches in various locations around the forecast area. A large storm cycle in late December deposited 4' of snow across the forecast N Eastern Sierra Avalanche Center - Inyo National Forest area. During this time numerous persistent deep-slab avalanches occurred across THE WINTER THAT WASN’T the forecast area with crown height ranging from 4-7'. Two fatalities resulted from The winter of 2012/13 started out with great promise with early snow in deep-slab avalanches inside ski area boundaries during this avalanche cycle. While November and December. December 2012 was the third wettest December in no fatal incidents occurred in the backcountry, nine close calls did get reported to 30 years with over 18.5" of water equivalent and 146" of snow recorded in the the avalanche center over the course of the season. Mammoth Basin and Mammoth Mountain. By the end of December, the Mammoth The cold weather that persisted through mid-January kept the snow cold and area received 65% of the winter’s precipitation – but we didn’t know that the dry for an extended period. Many backcountry travelers sought out new terrain winter was over. during the first few weeks of what would become a record dry spell. The period of By the end of January, all hope was abandoned for those hoping for a classic January 1 through March 31 turned out to be the driest on record for that time of eastern Sierra winter with deep stable snowpacks and numerous multi-day year. On January 1 the snowpack was at 146% of average for the date. On April 1 storms. After December, one storm the second week of March provided a foot the snowpack was reduced to 52% of average for the date. The significant snowfall or so of fresh March powder. Otherwise, Pacific storms abandoned the eastern from October through December provided the base and usable snowpack for the Sierra for the second year in a row. This time, lack of precipitation set records for remainder of the season. dry conditions in January, February, and March. 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 25 W BIG WATER, BIG AVALANCHES From November 29 to December 3, 54" of snow accumulated at the study plot on Mammoth Mountain. Over 1.5" of rain fell, mixed with almost 8" of water equivalent. Rain fell up to 10,500'. Rapid loading of the snowpack from rain and high rates of snowfall resulted in a full-depth avalanche cycle, running on depth hoar formed from November snowfall. Six and eight foot crowns were common along high-elevation ridgetops. A regional snow accumulation pattern emerged that continued throughout the winter. Due to a favorable topographic position that wrings moisture out of small, weak storms, the Mammoth area picked up a few inches of snow here and there throughout the winter. The forecast area south of Mammoth with high- elevation granite ridges blocked storms and received only 50% of average precipitation. On April 1, the traditional date of peak accumulation, the Mammoth area snowpack water content was about 80% of the long-term average and the southern Sierra is the driest since 1932.
WHEN WILL THIS END? It’ll snow next week… The January dry spell that California typically experiences lasted far longer than anyone expected – in fact, the dry spell produced one the driest winters on record for the eastern Sierra. The storm track favored the Tahoe area and northern California. Storms were measured in the inches rather than A skier-triggered slide in March. In typical eastern Sierra backcountry form, the group heard the slope collapse and continued to ascend the skin track. Lucky. Photo by Sue Burak feet. In addition to being dry, cold temperatures persisted along with buried facet layers. January and February were record breaking dry The local ski community reacted with disbelief – some folks didn’t know they AND cold with average temperatures similar to Bozeman, Montana. Inside sliders were in avalanche terrain, more sophisticated users attributed the avalanche to moving over a blocking high brought meager amounts of precipitation with warming of the slab. Since large skier-triggered avalanches that occur on persistent northwest flow, leaving the Sierra dry. The interior and eastern Nevada mountain weak layers are anomalous in the eastern Sierra, the avalanche provided a rare ranges had more snow than the southern portion of the forecast area. “teachable” moment for a few interested folks. The legacy of the December rains in the southern forecast area was two facet Ned Bair and I were keen to explore the idea that the slab had warmed enough to layers sandwiched between stout rain crusts. Ned Bair’s Big Ass Beams – 3-6m change its physical properties. Energy balance modeling showed the north-facing extended column tests – provided plenty of cheap entertainment watching facets slope at 10,500' was losing energy during and after the storm. The warming effect blow out above the rain crusts. And we thought facet blowouts were only observed was too small to account for any more than a secondary effect. in Craig’s Wasatch videos. In most eastern Sierran winters, long periods of dry weather, moderate Adding insult to dry conditions, record-breaking cold temperatures in January and temperatures, and deep snowpacks form uninteresting, well-sintered slabs. Most February contributed to the facet machine. Pathetic storms dropped a few inches of of the avalanche activity is due to storm-snow instabilities. This season, long dry snow that immediately became near-surface facets instead of familiar Sierra rounds. spells, very cold temperatures, and shallow snowpacks created tricky avalanche Subsequent small cold storms then buried the near-surface facets, creating thin conditions. The winter of 2012/13 was a great year for snow science and my facet-crust sandwiches throughout the upper snowpack in January, February, and continuing education, thanks to Ned Bair. After December’s storms, memorable early March. In mid- January, skiers descending a south-facing, wind-scoured slope powder days were few and quickly forgotten. The eastern Sierra spring corn show in alpine terrain triggered a hard slab that failed on buried facets. One person took a was ON for a short window, despite low snowpacks and skiers and riders and ride, deployed her balloon bag, and stayed on top. Fortunately, no one was hurt. enjoying generally stable conditions in the steep chutes in the Tioga Pass area. Persistent weak layers were the culprit in all of the reported skier- and rider- As of April 24, I wrote 61 advisories, 50% of which rated the avalanche danger triggered avalanches this winter. I’m sure there were many more than the three as Moderate; buried persistent weak layers meant skier triggering was possible incidents that were reported. For perspective, fewer than 100-150 users a day for most of January through March, despite days and weeks without precipitation. visited the advisory area on winter weekends, so any avalanche incident here was I teamed up with Ned Bair for two educational talks. celebrated as a break from the monotony of rounds and ECTXs. Recreational users The long-range outlook for winter 2013/14 is for neutral El Niño-Southern were caught off guard when the forgiving and reliably stable snowpack proved Oscillation conditions. If the ENSO neutral conditions of the winter of 2012/13 unpredictable and reactive to human triggering many days after the last storm. are any indication of next winter’s weather, anything could happen. The day after 12-18 people skied a popular slope, a group with two local skiers —Sue Burak, forecaster and an aspiring ski guide followed a well-worn uptrack from the previous day when the slope collapsed. Two hundred feet above them, an R3 D3 soft-slab avalanche N Colorado Avalanche Information Center cracked and propagated 200'. No one was caught as the avalanche flowed 600 The 2012/13 season marked the 40th year of avalanche forecasting in Colorado, vertical feet downslope from their position below the crown. and the eleventh annual Colorado Snow and Avalanche Workshop appropriately kicked off the season with a historical perspective. We willfully ignored predictions from NOAA for a less than what's new stellar snow year, and began the season with high expectations for a deep, stable snowpack. Colorado suffered through a long winter of deep persistent slab problems that haunted the backcountry until the end of April. Winter was slow to start, and limited snowfall and cold temperatures in November and December led to a weak foundation that struggled to support the new snow that finally arrived early in the new year. Most storm cycles from January through the end of April produced large, natural and human-triggered avalanches. Of the 3139 reported avalanches this season, many of them failed on deep, persistent weak layers. We had several tragic accidents this season. A total of 100 people were caught in avalanches, with 15 complete burials and 11 deaths. The number of fatalities is sadly double our 10-year average of 5.4. There is no way to determine the true number of people caught or buried in avalanches each year, because TAR received incredible photos of Christian Cabanilla's last ski days from photographer Cedric Bernardini: it was difficult to choose just one to publish, but here is our favorite. See story on page 11. Continued on next page ¦ X PAGE 26 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î SEASON SUMMARIES 2012/13 Details on these and other avalanche accidents across the state can be found on continued from previous page our website, www.colorado.gov/avalanche. There are a couple interesting side notes from the 44 incidents that were reported. Thirteen people were caught in avalanches preparing to ascend, or while ascending in avalanche terrain. This is roughly 30% of the people reported caught this past season. In addition, five ski patrollers were caught in avalanches while working. One of the ski patrollers was killed (Snowmass) and another was injured (Crested Butte). By May 1, the deep-slab problem finally began to subside, leaving only thousands of shallow wet slabs and wet loose avalanches to count as winter finally departed in June. It was one of our best spring ski seasons across northern Colorado in memory, as ample April snowfall led many ski areas to reopen. Corn skiing was excellent through June and into July. It will be interesting to see what year 41 has in store for our forecast center; here’s hoping everyone has above-average snowfall for the 2013/14 season. —Scott Toepfer, forecaster
This avalanche ran on April 18, 2013, with photo taken the next day by Brian Lazar. The location is off Ptarmigan Knob on a path called, ironically, Avalanche Bowl. Triggered by a skier, the weak layer was the usual suspect around here: depth hoar. non-fatal avalanche incidents are increasingly underreported. However, of the 44 reported avalanche incidents, four are particularly notable. The first of these accidents killed a 49-year-old professional ski patroller from the Snowmass ski area on December 30. The ski patroller was skiing alone in a permanently closed area and triggered a small (R1D1) unsupported slab that quickly ran through some timber and then over a large cliff, leaving the victim on the surface of the debris at the bottom. A search for the patroller was initiated when the victim did not respond to several radio calls. This is the second ski patroller in the last three years killed in Colorado by an avalanche while on the job. A second ski area incident occurred on February 16, when a group of 14 riders and one ski patroller were conducting “directed skiing” in Montezuma Bowl at the Arapahoe Basin ski area. As the last member of the group descended to the ski Mark Staples conducts a quick stability test near West Yellowstone, MT. With good sleds we can dig countless pits and see endless terrain in a single field day. Photo by Dave Brown patroller, a large (R3 D2.5) deep-slab avalanche released, catching all 15 members of the group. One person was completely buried, six members of the group were N Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center partially buried, and four people were injured. Miraculously no one was killed We just wrapped up our 23rd season at the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche or seriously injured. Center, one of the best winters ever: lots of snow, good stability, and no fatalities. The third incident of note occurred on March 2, when both skiers in a group of It has been nine years since we’ve had this combination. Plentiful early snow, two were caught in a large deep-slab avalanche near Cameron Pass in northern drenching rain, and warm temperatures set the stage for a strong snowpack with Colorado. A group of nearby backcountry skiers responded to the accident and a dense foundation for the rest of the year. There were no avalanche fatalities and located and extricated one skier. Unfortunately he had already perished. They about half as many reported avalanche incidents than the previous year. Luck could not locate the second skier, who was ultimately located by organized-rescue was certainly a factor but so were snowpack conditions. Avalanches tended to personnel who arrived on the scene a couple hours later. The rescue team located be smaller and shallower than in years past. In at least one area the danger was and began extricating the second skier only to be shocked by groans coming from High only 8% of the time and Low 40% of the time. underneath the snow. The response quickly turned from a recovery to a rescue. In southwest Montana the snowpack began building around October 20. On Rescuers finished digging out the second skier, who was in bad shape but still the last weekend of October, the Bridger Range received 18-24" of new snow, and alive after being buried for nearly three hours. After a complicated evacuation, three skiers were caught in an avalanche. The following day, October 29, most the survivor was flown to medical care and ultimately recovered from the minor areas received heavy rain that saturated the snowpack. By Halloween trick-or- physical injuries and severe hypothermia. It is unusual for victims to survive a treaters were strolling through Bozeman in warm sunshine instead of below-zero, critical burial of over an hour. To survive a burial of nearly three hours is rare and depth-hoar-forming temperatures. November brought colder weather that refroze added a silver lining to an otherwise tragic accident. the snowpack and created a thick layer of strong snow at the ground. Snowfall Finally, on April 20, as most avalanche centers are closing down for the season, continued through November, and the snowpack tripled in snow-water equivalent six backcountry tourers were ascending Sheep Creek near Loveland Pass when (SWE) throughout the advisory area. they were caught and buried in a large, deep-slab avalanche. Five members of Snowfall really took off in the month of December with 4" of SWE falling in the the group were killed, and the sixth survived a four-hour partial burial. He was mountains near Bozeman, 7" of SWE near West Yellowstone, and 10" of SWE near finally located and dug out by responding rescuers. Cooke City. The snowpack easily supported this loading with surprisingly few avalanches. During December the avalanche danger was High only once, a stark contrast to most seasons. While the snowpack was strong on most slopes, some avalanches did occur in weaker areas where less snow had accumulated. Snowfall ended at the start of January and the danger quickly dropped to Low. Most of January was dry and cold, forming small facets at the snow surface and some depth hoar where the snowpack was thin. One exception was the second week of January that featured a large storm and a short-lived Avalanche Warning and High danger. Snowfall returned more consistently at the end of the month building a slab on top of a variety of near-surface weak layers. With these facets lurking on most slopes the danger remained elevated during February but never spiked too high as there were no major storms or wind events. Two separate, non-fatal accidents occurred in February on these faceted layers. Dry snow avalanche activity limped along until mid-March when conditions warmed well above freezing for about three days. During this time both wet loose and wet slab natural avalanches occurred. By March 17, the snowpack refroze and stability quickly improved. More wet avalanches occurred when temperatures warmed again at the end of March. By the last advisory on April 7, cold temperatures returned and refroze the snowpack. New snow fell and bonded well to the underlying ice crust creating stable conditions and good riding A quick review of the numbers: We averaged 4491 people per day receiving or accessing the daily advisory. Our website had 490,000 unique page views with folks averaging 2:18 minutes on the site. We had 98 field days, dug 129 snowpits, and performed 137 stability tests. Between us and the Friends, we taught 67 classes to 3473 people of whom 658 were snowmobilers. Jay Pape, the Friends education coordinator, was instrumental in managing our programs. A new field course this year was Companion Rescue which ran about a half day. We offered it A view of the dramatic crown in the Sheep Creek avalanche of April 20 at Loveland Pass. several times to both skiers and sledders. For the fourth year in a row we hosted a Watch for an analysis of this accident in an upcoming TAR. Photo by Brian Lazar Professional Development Workshop for avalanche professionals. The workshop 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 27 W
Mother Nature’s record-breaking attempt failed. At the Old Ski Bowl weather station, snowfall totals were near 100" after the storm. Not bad, but about half of what was expected. December began warm and wet, but temperatures cooled and brought snow to very low elevations for the second half of the month. On December 20, a storm brought about 30-50" of fresh snow over a four-day period and gave us our most pervasive avalanche activity of the season. Naturally triggered storm- and wind-slab avalanches were widespread on multiple aspects in the forecast area. Persistent, deep facet layers were the common weakness with most of the slides. The two fatality slides that happened in our nearby friends’ Nick Meyers digs a pit on east aspect of Grey Butte at 7,500'. Photo by Hanne Meyers territory, the Sierra Avalanche Center’s Snowmobilers in a class near West Yellowstone, MT, find stable snow in a class co-taught by the Gallatin and Bridger-Teton Centers. Photo by Eric Knoff Lake Tahoe area, also occurred on these same persistent deep facet layers. The year 2012 came to a close and as 2013 came into existence, many were was supported by the AAA, and we again filmed and posted all nine lectures on feeling exalted. The snowpack was thick for this time of year and winter was off YouTube (see the workshop review on page 10). to a grand start. Allow me to now choose a few words to describe the rest of the We continue to receive strong support from both Gallatin National Forest and season: flounder, fade… uh, rain check! January was below normal in precipitation the local community. 57% of our funding came from the Gallatin NF. Both the with a long period of high pressure that kept our faces brown and survival skiing Friends and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks contributed over $40K each. Many at its best. Scattered storms for the remaining portion of the season brought us other businesses and organizations including ski patrols at Big Sky, Bridger, glimpses of winter weather and windy conditions, but nothing to write home Moonlight, and the Yellowstone Club made significant contributions. For the about. California and the Sierra Nevada recorded the driest January and February eighth year running, Yamaha put us on their snowmobiles through Cooke City on record. For the period September 1, 2012 through April 1, 2013, Mt. Shasta sits Motorsports, but this season we entered the realm of turbocharged snowmobiles, at 70% of normal. For 2013, we are at 23% of normal. a definite game changer. Mt Shasta Avalanche Center, despite a somewhat dry winter, experienced some On April 7 we issued our 136th and final avalanche advisory and closed the positive changes. With the help of Sierra Avalanche Center, we launched a new doors. Running the GNFAC is a community effort relying on volunteers and broad website in mid-February. Steady progress is being made to adjust the site to fit our financial support for our daily operations. The Friends of the GNFAC continue to avalanche and climbing information needs. MSAC issued a total of 54 advisories play a huge role in fundraising and avalanche education. We are indebted to the this year and continues to issue them Friday through Sunday. November 1 through recreation community and local businesses for supporting the Friends every year. April 1, the site saw 39,489 visits and 17,533 unique visits. We had 58.57% returning The success of the GNFAC is a direct reflection of these strong local ties. visitors and 41.43% new visitors. —Mark Staples, forecaster We have maintained our free avalanche awareness presentations and transceiver clinics, once a month, December through March. Education remains a large focus. This season a total of 389 people (65 hours) were educated about avalanches and transceiver use; 64 of the 389 were under 18 years of age. While MSAC has conducted snowmobile-specific avalanche awareness/transceiver clinics in the past, it’s been a number of years. This year we put on a snowmobile-specific one- day course and had fantastic attendance. 28 riders came out and began the day with a 1.5-hour indoor presentation and then proceeded onto the mountain for an afternoon of beacon searches, great discussion, and scenarios. MSAC looks forward to continuing to reach out to snowmobilers and hosting this training day next year. Other highlights include special avalanche and winter travel training for Southern Oregon University students, Mt Shasta Ski Park ski patrol, and Siskiyou County Search & Rescue. MSAC always works in close cooperation with Siskiyou County SAR in all mountain-rescue incidents. On the Friends (FMSAC) side of things, some change occurred. FMSAC Executive Director Keith Potts resigned. After advertising in October and November, Adam Teel was hired as the new ED/part-time forecaster. Adam comes from Utah and has great snow experience from patrolling at Solitude Mountain Resort and good energy toward directing the board. The board saw two other resignations, but gained five new youthful, full-of-energy board members. Federal funds continue Mt Shasta Avalanche Center forecaster Nick Meyers skis Crater Lake National Park during a to be unavailable to provide a second forecaster through the Forest Service. The considerable/high avalanche danger day. We were able to kick off a decent-size wind slab that day and thus decided to just tease the edge of the trees. While we don’t specifically forecast plan first implemented last year that allowed a seasonal forecaster to be paid by for Crater Lake, the snowpack is generally very similar to ours. Photo by Garrett Smith the Friends group but work as a volunteer for the Forest Service continued this season. Adam served that position by working 15-20 hours per week assisting N Mt Shasta Avalanche Center Forest Service Avalanche Specialist Nick Meyers in forecasting, field observations, Mt Shasta: US Snowstorm Record in Jeopardy, read local and national media outlets as December was just getting underway. Northern California snow freaks were Continued on next page ¦ freaking…was this the whopping winter we’d all been waiting for, albeit impatiently, for years? A storm was on its way, and all were hopeful that it would be the canary in the coal mine indicator for what the rest of the winter held in store. Leading up to this point, September and October were warm and dry with September recording exactly zero precipitation. November remained warmer than normal with almost double normal precipitation values, 9.16" vs 5.08". A local weather co-op observed the second wettest November on record. In fact, during a four-day period, nearby Shasta Lake recorded 13.57" of rain. In one day, the reservoir rose nearly seven feet with an inflow of almost 75,000 cfs! According to the National Weather Service, Mt Shasta was supposed to get between 171-213" of snow over a four- Our bi-annual interagency helicopter training day period that ended on December day is spent conducting flights on Mt Shasta 2. That’s 14' to nearly 18' of snow. The and practicing ground exercises with Siskiyou previous world record was 189" over County Search and Rescue, CAL Fire, Army I decided to bivy on the summit of Shasta on my 30th birthday. With the clouds and National Guard, USFS, and local guides. six days in 1959, measured in the Old sun, we had quite the photo session. Didn’t sleep worth shit, but had a great time and Photo by Brett Wagenheim Ski Bowl at approximately 8000'. witnessed some weird lights in the sky. Photo by Brett Wagenheim X PAGE 28 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î SEASON SUMMARIES 2012/13 s EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS continued from previous page s 4WITTER FOLLOWERS s AVERAGE NUMBER OF &ACEBOOK VIEWERS OF EACH POST avalanche awareness training, and public outreach. The annual Snow Ball fundraiser s 9OU4UBE VIDEOS UPLOADED VIEWED TIMES saw incredible attendance this year. A full house of stoke brought in record dollar amounts, and it was great to have the event back in Mt Shasta city limits. Funding: Nick Meyers, the lead climbing ranger and director of MSAC had the opportunity s &RIENDS GROUP FUNDS !VALANCHE #ENTER OPERATIONS to attend a professional development workshop in Bozeman, MT. The Gallatin s )N KIND AGENCY CONTRIBUTIONS ESTIMATED AT &OREST 3ERVICE EMPLOYEES National Forest Avalanche Center hosted a one-day workshop on the theme, contributed 16 days each) Lessons Learned. Nick contacted Doug Chabot and was invited to the workshop s ./!!-ISSOULA 7EATHER IN KIND CONTRIBUTIONS ESTIMATED AT BACKCOUNTRY and asked to present a story. Day one was spent at the workshop, followed by four weather forecasts requiring 4 hours prep time for 1 GS12 forecaster) days of shadowing GNFAC forecasters. Nick says, “The workshop was fantastic. I s &RIENDS GROUP IN KIND CONTRIBUTIONS INSTRUCTOR SERVICES AND MISC EDUCATION think my presentation went well, and my time in Bozeman with the Gallatin boys expenses) was awesome. Being around all of their experience was invaluable, and I hope s 0RAY FOR 3NOW 0ARTY AT #ARAS 0ARK IN EARLY /CTOBER RAISED OVER FOR THE to go back next year! I want to thank the Forest Service, FMSAC, and GNFAC for WCMAF allowing the trip to become a reality.” Nick continues to enjoy his position and is s 4HE +ETTLEHOUSE "REWERY #OMMUNITY 5NITE 0INT .ITE BENEFIT NETTED OVER excited to further his avalanche knowledge to no end. for WCMAF Looking ahead, goals and ideas for the 2013/14 winter season include upgrading s -ONTANA 3NOWBOWL SKI PATROL .ATIONAL 3KI 0ATROL SYSTEM DONATED OF the weather station communication to avoid gaps/delays in data, potentially adding their license plate earnings to WCMAF one more weather station on the east side of Mt Shasta, continuing to hone the s 7#-!& RECEIVED 2ECREATION 4RAILS 0ROGRAM 'RANT FROM -ONTANA &ISH new website, increasing snowmobile avalanche awareness classes, acquiring an Wildlife & Parks for avalanche -safety information and education programs which advisory text editor to help improve writing skills, starting a weekly newspaper will be used to support avalanche safety education during winter 2013/14 column, applying for grants, and lastly, continuing to strive for a second Forest Service forecaster position. —Nick Meyers, director Accidents/Incidents: s FULL BURIAL WITH MINOR INJURY *ANUARY ON 0OINT 3IX N West Central Montana Avalanche Center s MINOR INCIDENTS WITH POTENTIAL CAUGHT BUT NOT BURIED REPORTED TO THE CENTER The West Central Montana Avalanche Center (WCMAC) enjoyed a successful —Steve Karkanen, director winter characterized by better-than-usual stability, very good skiing and riding conditions, and great community support. In early 2012, the center lost a $20,000 grant that has been an integral funding component for our education and advisory programs. The Lolo National Forest, our host agency, eliminated a $5000 avalanche center operating budget due to continued loss of recreation program monies. We were initially concerned that much of our education effort and advisory days would have to be cut severely to meet this funding shortfall. But our Friends organization, the West Central Montana Avalanche Foundation Max Forgensi stitches together a (WCMAF aka missoulaavalanche.org), stepped up and contributed $20,000 to panorama of this cover this lost grant. This allowed us to continue offering free public avalanche crown/ bed surface/ awareness, companion rescue, and other avalanche-safety programs as well as a basic block composition avalanche-awareness program in local middle to high school science classes. in the LaSals. Early season snowfall was nearly nonexistent in western Montana valleys but exceptional above 6000'. Warm, wet early storms and continued moderate temperatures gave us the most stable conditions we’ve seen in a long time. N Utah Avalanche Center - Moab An early January cold dry period allowed surface hoar and near surface facets The Utah Avalanche Center-Moab opened its doors on December 3 and was in to set the stage for our first and only avalanche warning issued on January 9 after full swing by the 15th of December, issuing at least two advisories a week until the a warm, wet storm dropped up to 20" of storm snow on this weak layer. 9th of March, when “other duties as assigned” prioritized over forecasting, yet the This was soon followed by the first and only avalanche accident (that we are snow continued to fall through the beginning of May. UAC-Moab had 15 volunteers aware of) which occurred on January 14 near Montana Snowbowl in a backcountry contribute 360 hours of time to assist Max Forgensi as field partners, and seven area easily accessed from the resort. The individual triggered a storm slab in a classes were held which taught 96 students. Observers submitted observations small opening on a steep, treed slope, was strained through trees, and completely through the website more than ever before, and the Utah Avalanche Center-Moab buried against a large spruce tree. His partner found him within a couple of Facebook page extended avalanche information into the social media arena. minutes, dug his head free, and assured that he was able to breath on his own. Stability throughout the season was better than our northern San Juan counterparts He sustained a minor injury to his leg and was able to skin out of the area under and allowed for field days to travel into seldom-visited locations with above- his own power. (see photo spread, below) average snow quality. The incredible spring coverage has allowed new lines to be The rest of the winter was mostly uneventful, and we stayed busy providing pioneered, and although attempted, a single push across the entire La Sal massif avalanche safety classes to a variety of groups. Our season ended on April 5, with has yet to be accomplished on skis. 85-90% of average total snowpack in the western Montana mountains. —Max Forgensi, forecaster R
Winter 2012/13 - Education Pt Six 7950' s PUBLIC CLASSES s ONE HOUR TO THREE HOUR awareness classes s HOUR ADVANCED AWARENESS CROWN classes with a field component s ,EVEL CLASSES s PARTICIPANTS s SNOWMOBILERS ATTENDED 45 degrees at crown five classes tailored for snowmobilers s MIDDLE TO HIGH SCHOOL students attended an avalanche awareness class s WESTERN -ONTANA RESIDENTS attended an avalanche class
Avalanche Advisory: View down slide path s ADVISORIES ISSUED STARTED December 14 and ended April 5 s EARLY SEASON AND POST SEASON BURIAL information updates posted SITE s AVALANCHE WARNING ISSUED (January 9-10) SLIDE s ADVISORY PAGE VISITS TERMINUS (November 1 - April 15) January 14 avalanche incident site near Montana Snowbowl. One backcountry skier was pinned s AVERAGE NUMBER OF and completely buried against a tree, yet sustained only minor injuries. Burial site advisory viewers Photos by Steve Karkanan, except for the pic of Steve and the crown taken by Dudley Improta 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 29 W The following avalanche centers are Non-Agency Avalanche Centers nonprofit, volunteer-based information centers who have met the standards to 2012/13 Season Summaries be listed as such on www.avalanche.org.
December 3, 2012: 4" deep soft slab remotely triggered from several hundred feet away. This slide highlighted the reactive the layer of near surface facets that formed during November’s dry spell and was well-preserved on northerly aspects prior to the December storm cycle. SS-ASr-R2/D1-I Photo by Drew Holbrook
N Crested Butte Avalanche Center entraining the entire season’s snowpack, a type of avalanche that doesn’t quite fit Following a prolonged dry spell and facet-forming November, the snow guns into our current list of avalanche problems (see photo, below). I propose new SWAG were pointed at our corner of the Elk Mountains through December. Constant code, such as LSP (Loose-Shit-Pile) or DBS (Don’t-Bother-Skiing). storms dropped over 7.0" SWE in favored zones. Touchy persistent weak layers and obvious signs of instability (see photo, above) kept most skiers and riders on Continued on next page ¦ low-angle terrain or seeking refuge on southerly aspects that were dirt prior to December storms, and our snowiest month and most active cycle of the season passed without any reported incidents. The onslaught of heavy snowfall and avalanche activity subsided around the New Year. With 20 days of high pressure in January, we braced ourselves for a long period of “Scary Moderate” advisories warning of low-likelihood/high- consequence persistent slabs. Perhaps our most effective tool in educating the public about this threat was when one of our forecasters remotely triggered a slide to the ground (see photo, below). The frightening crown up to 8' deep was plainly visible from town and made our jobs easier as it glared down on locals. It is amazing how quickly snow will rot in Colorado when it is not snowing. Toward the end of January, many lower elevation slopes had metamorphosed to all facets. We started warning skiers and riders of potentially large “facet sluffs”
December 31, 2013: Remotely triggered persistent slab in Coon Basin with crown depths upwards of 8' deep. The slide was in plain view from town and served as a good reminder January 17, 2013: Skier-triggered “facet sluffs” on low-elevation northerly slopes. LSP- of lurking weak layers. SS-ASr-R3/D2.5-O Photo by Josh Hirshberg ASc-R2/D2-G Photo by Roman Kolodziej X PAGE 30 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î
April 15, 2013: Deep-slab avalanches in Redwell Basin following a major spring storm. HS-N-R3/D3-O Photo by Pete Sowar
NON-AGENCY SUMMARIES 2012/13 A 12-day lull in snow and windloading with cooler temperatures allowed us to continued from previous page trim the danger to low by early April. Skiers and riders were enjoying big lines in the Elk Mountains. The jet stream quickly snuffed out all green lights by lining The January dry spell ended uneventfully but left us with a fresh coat of up directly over Colorado. The mountains picked up over 3.5" of SWE between widespread persistent weak layers. Southerly aspects joined the game as well by April 9 and April 15. The heavy snowfall was accompanied by the strongest winds serving up a not-so-tasty crust/facet sandwich. of the season and lots of dust. Numerous wind-slab avalanches failed up to four In the last five days of January, upwards of 55" of new snow (3.5" of SWE) feet deep, and several natural deep-slab avalanches ran on northerly alpine bowls clobbered the Elk Mountains, and the danger spiked back to high for two days. (see photo, above). Due to all of the avalanche activity in mid-April, we extended Avalanches were widespread around the rose, with a number of close calls involving our forecast season two weeks. The season ended with the Gunnison River Basin backcountry users and 33 reported human-triggered slides. A skier triggered a 10' reaching approximately 80% of its average peak in snow-water equivalent. deep slab and managed to grab a tree to avoid getting swept downslope. We feel fortunate that only a couple of incidents and no fatalities occurred during Small but steady doses of snow through all of February kept considerable danger this challenging season and applaud our community for the constant stream of present somewhere on the rose through the entire month. All of the slides reported observations. We published 339 snow and avalanche observations – nearly twice in the last three weeks of February involved just storm snow or windslabs. While what more populated forecast zones around the state receive. the northern half of Colorado was in a deep-slab cycle, our zone held a relatively deeper and stronger snowpack from favorable December storms and was holding 2012/13 Challenges, Successes, and Deep Persistent Thoughts tough under gradual loads. We continue to struggle with putting our square avalanche problem pegs into Spring weather arrived in March with a mix of warm, sunny days and several the round danger scale holes. To ease the headache, we tossed around terms like short but potent storms. Two prolonged warm-ups initiated some wet-slab activity “Moderable” with fellow forecasters. Which of our three columns from the danger (see photo, below). Approximately 6" of SWE fell in March, and with each major scale (travel advice, likelihood, or size/distribution) takes trump when reality storm, we’d receive one or two observations of persistent slabs failing near the doesn’t nicely fit? From discussions with forecasters around the country, I found ground along with the usual storm instabilities. The problem had reduced to that we aren’t all in unison on what a loose term like “large avalanches” in the higher elevation slopes on northerly aspects (see snowpit profile, below). danger scale really means. It is a constant challenge to forecast one danger and one problem list for the two different snow climates that our topography lends itself to. Our western zone gets battered by storms with an almost Wasatch-type snowpack, while the easier accessed peaks near town sit in the rain shadow with purebred Colorado characteristics. By late December, we knew some slopes in Ruby Range were holding stubborn deep slabs over 10' deep, while areas near town had 18" touchy persistent slabs on the same weak layer. We addressed this by describing both types of problems under one persistent-slab icon and conveying what subtleties we could within our text. Our transition from the persistent-slab icon to deep persistent slab was certainly not black and white, and it was fraught with many lengthy email threads between our staff and forecasters around the state. This year our forecasting staff focused on incorporating more media into our product: we produced 10 YouTube videos and published 84 photos to help illustrate avalanche problems or snowpack structure. We received lots of positive feedback from the community, with over 9000 online YouTube views. One of the videos was featured on Colorado Channel 9 News. Other March, 2013: A destructive wet slab that failed at the ground sometime during March successful outreach projects included several trailhead days, an ambassador warm-up in Rustler’s Gulch. WS-N-R4/D3.5-G Photo by Zach Guy team, awareness night, and other fundraising events. —Zach Guy, forecaster N Valdez Avalanche Center The Valdez Avalanche Center started producing regular bulletins in October and did so until June, as it has done each winter since 2006. Before ISSW last September, enthusiasts were still riding the previous season’s snow. The heavy rains during ISSW contributed to September’s 26" of rain in Valdez. This briefly built a snowpack that riders took advantage of in early October. It proved too good to be true as warm temperatures in mid-October did a fantastic melt job up to 5000'. High pressure in November and December brought cold temperatures and outflow wind to finish off any snow we had hopes of riding. It wasn’t until late December that a few storms dumped the snow needed to provide coverage and decent conditions. January brought a number of storms that totaled 93.5" of snow with 10.96" of water equivalent. February and March brought equal doses of onshore storms and outflow wind periods, while temperatures remained cool. A few locals encountered close-call avalanches in February: one was a remotely triggered size 2 to ground, the other was a cornice drop that triggered a deep slab that barreled a size 3 avalanche down on climbers below. At the end of April, Valdez continued to set records for April’s deepest snowpack with six feet of snow at sea level. This season marked the fifth annual avalanche center FUNdraiser as well as the Thompson Pass Snowkite Festival, Tailgate Alaska World Freeride Championships, and the 23rd Annual Valdez Mountain Man Hill Climb March 27, 2013: Snow profile from Crystal Peak on a north-facing aspect above treeline, illustrating the deep-slab problem. The location of the pit was wiped out two weeks and presented by the Valdez Snowmachine Club. several storms later when a snowmobiler triggered the whole slope. —Peter Carter, forecaster 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 PAGE 31 W
The KPAC season was typified by wind scouring of upper-elevation terrain. This photo also WAC board member Paul Arentsen leads a group of grade school students on a field session displays David Lovejoy, ski patroller, avalanche educator, and mentor, surrounded by San studying snow layering and safe travel techniques. Photo by Lorna Cook Francisco Peak’s characteristic dose of wind rime. Photo by Derik Spice
N Wallowa Avalanche Center the 10,800' study plot. Post-storm wind immediately scoured much of the high- The majority of our 22 weekly advisories, beginning on November 21 and elevation coverage on north, northwest, and northeast aspects above tree line. developed by staff at the Wallowa Avalanche Center (WAC), described a snowpack Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve another 32" (80cm) of snow fell, followed somewhat less reactive than during previous years. Avalanche activity reflected by more ridgetop winds from the north at 80-100mph. this with lower numbers of human-triggered and natural avalanches reported. As Much of January was dry, with highly variable temperatures and a couple of short- we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner, the upper elevations were sporting about 18" of wave troughs bringing wind and a little new snow. During January 11-15, polar air snow cover. This began changing immediately with small to mid-size storms coming encroached, bringing some of the coldest weather in more than 20 years. Flagstaff’s through at regular intervals until the pre-Christmas week winds began in earnest. airport recorded a low of -9°F (-23°C). Predictably, basal faceting ran rampant on I’ll take three helpings of wind slab, please, with two helpings of wind scour. all snow-covered slopes. January’s big event was an unseasonably warm storm Early January provided a good shot of snowfall with clearing and warming temps that started with rain at elevations below 11,200' and resulted in 33" (82.5cm) of for the remainder of January. Mid-February provided a noticeable strengthening high-density glop (3.5+" SWE) in 72 hours. This storm was responsible for our only of our snowpack with relatively quiet warmer weather. Late February through significant natural avalanche cycle all winter. On January 27, the Coconino County early March brought much-needed snow and the “Wind-lowas” lived up to their Sheriff's Office issued a winter hazard advisory. The conditions resulted in several nickname as the snow was blown to northwest Montana. Average weather events natural avalanches in the Inner Basin, including the Heck Yeah Chutes and Jay’s concluded our reporting season on April 12, 2013. Slide on Fremont Peak (see photo) which avalanched to the ground. Snow continued Weekly bulletins were written by Keith, Julian, and Michael Hatch – providing to fall, and by month’s end, storm-cycle totals were at around 4' (96cm). a welcome variation in style and content. Michael wrote the bulk of the bulletins February started out dry, but then a cold storm dropped 36" (90cm) of powder and played a huge part as our education coordinator, conducting the majority snow (4-7% water). This was followed by several days of unseasonably warm of our educational events and our L1 and L2 courses. He further expanded our weather, providing the catalyst for worrisome near-surface faceting associated awareness lecture outreach to include more snowmobile audiences and a lecture with newly formed surface crusts (see image). Several slow-moving cold troughs at Whitman College in southeast Washington. Many Whitman College students and some wind piled on another 23" (57.5cm) of low-density snow. Thankfully, frequent the Wallowas. only about 3/4" of SWE was measured at our 9,730' Snowslide SNOTEL station. For a second year we continue to strengthen our relationship with Eastern Oregon Perhaps due to the lack of threshold loading, what we speculated might result in University (EOU). WAC and EOU professor Brian Sather developed an avalanche a dangerous sandwich never produced natural or skier-triggered avalanches. intern program whereby EOU senior Trent Manns provided much-needed support During March, temperature gradients within the snowpack were lost, not only and assistance to WAC staff. In return, Trent continued to further his avalanche from the upper pack but throughout, as springtime warmth and near-isothermal education attending a L2 course sponsored by WAC, providing many backcountry conditions developed. A warm spell at the beginning of the month produced observations, assisting in our lecture circuit, and writing a weekly bulletin with some wet-snow avalanches, but no major wet slabs were reported. The season staff oversight. Jerry Isaac of EOU’s Outdoor Program launched the first annual ended with more wind, variable temperatures, and a few flurries as mid-latitude Eastern Oregon Backcountry Festival. This multi-day event appealed to backcountry cyclonic storms passed to our north. travelers with films, on-snow events, human-powered races, clinics, and tours. Our avalanche problems were almost exclusively wind slab and storm snow. Our Proceeds from the event were donated to WAC. only natural avalanche cycle occurred in late January with rapid loading of high- Julian, as deputy director representing WAC, developed a new three-hour workshop density snow (and rain) on a faceted shallow snowpack. No avalanche accidents delving into the backcountry communications aspect of human factors. Thanks to his were reported. Several small skier-triggered avalanches occurred. Coconino County experience and teaching credentials in the airline industry studying communication Search and Rescue only responded to three winter backcountry missions on San errors in the cockpit, he was approached by the Friends of NWAC to create this Francisco Peaks, a record low for a reasonably good snow year. Hopefully, this backcountry mountaineering workshop, which was well received in Seattle and was at least partly attributable to KPAC’s ongoing educational efforts. Portland, as part of the Going Deep series. Friends of NWAC provided WAC with a New this year was a more systematic tracking of the snowpack in conjunction handsome donation for Julian’s effort. Beginning with a short lecture, the program with weekly summaries of snowpack conditions. Snowpack summaries in bulletin segued to participants filling out a survey to get an idea of their own communication format were posted on our website by Friday afternoons to benefit accelerated style. Later in the workshop, participants applied skills in small groups with a mock weekend activity, with updates as needed after big storms. We posted 16 bulletins real-life scenario that required consensus on a complex route-finding problem. between December 21 and March 22, all archived on www.kachinapeaks.org. The WAC board of directors is placing increased emphasis on reaching children Despite some pretty bony high-elevation conditions from wind stripping, and a at the youngest age possible to instill a lifelong appreciation for avalanche safety. loss of low-elevation approach snow during the January 24 rain event, significant A grade school avalanche curriculum developed by WAC focuses on three topics: backcountry activity took place. Some of the best skiing was accessed from the safe travel protocol, basic snow layering and weather, and beacon introduction.We Arizona Snowbowl ski resort via open gates to the south-side gullies below tree continue to develop tools and on-snow activities that grab and hold the attention line, or by booting to the ridge and skiing Inner Basin where wind-protected of younger minds.The success of this program reaching out to these 28 students high-elevation terrain could be found. motivates WAC to make this age group a continuing future priority. Backcountry activity was quantified by two methods: —Keith Stebbings, director 1) There were 726 winter backcountry permits issued this winter. 2) This year personnel for the Flagstaff District of the Coconino National N Kachina Peaks Avalanche Center Forest installed and collected data from an infrared trail counter at the south side Despite below-average snowfall – 84% of the 30-year mean – the timing and backcountry access gate at the top of Arizona Snowbowl. According to the counter productivity of the storms made our winter feel quite robust. By season’s end, there were 19 days when more than 50 skiers or snowboarders were recorded, a total of 219" (547.5cm) had fallen at 10,800'. Storm winds, and especially post- and eight days with more than 100. The record was set on February 26 when 340 storm northerly winds in excess of 60mph, once again characterized much of were counted following 23" of new snow. This data will help track future trends our winter. Snow cover was stripped clean from wind-exposed starting zones for out-of-bounds skiing and riding activity. throughout most of the season. The wind confined our avalanche problem mainly Between December 1 and April 21, www.kachinapeaks.org had 18,776 page- to isolated pockets of wind slab, while a lot of our high-elevation snow returned views by 3976 unique visitors. Our public discussion/observation boards to the atmosphere through sublimation. had 29,878 page views by 1420 unique visitors. Our new weekly snowpack Snow started falling in late November and early December with a succession of three storms between Thanksgiving and December 18, dropping 56" of snow at Continued on next page ¦ X PAGE 32 / Ê6 Ê, 6 7 6" °ÊÎÓ]Ê "°Ê£]Ê" /" ,ÊÓä£Î
GOING METRIC I recognize adopting this practice challenges the belief continued from page 11 that avalanche advisories and other similar products must be reported as unambiguously as possible, yet I also think 3. The role of forecast centers. the user base is more prepared to adopt SI than we may Perhaps I live in the bubble of the Utah Avalanche Center think. Skiers and snowboarders all seemingly understand (UAC), but I believe forecasting operations not only need gear specifications in centimeters, and climbers understand to effectively communicate avalanche hazards, but also rope lengths in meters. I also realize most of us were raised provide avalanche education as a part of daily advisories as in – and still live in – an imperial world. With this in mind, well as other products. As an example, UAC forecasters will from some successful experiences, I would like to offer a not only mention existence of a persistent weak layer, but few suggestions that may ease such a transition: will also describe the very factors that led to its formation. When reporting in SI units, do the translation for If we want to both inform and educate the general public, it the reader by also including the equivalent imperial is best explained in units that are standardized throughout measurement in parentheses. For an avalanche advisory, this our profession as well as the world. may mean reporting “25cm (10") of snow fell overnight,” “overnight lows are expected to dip to -15°C (5°F),” or “a Of course some mixing of imperial and SI is still necessary. layer of surface hoar is still being found down 60-75cm The following identifies four different areas where SI or (24-30") beneath the snow surface.” I also provide some David Lovejoy gets deep into Level 1 curriculum imperial units may be used: on Dutchman’s Path, February 10, 2013. simple rules for my students: their probe pole likely has Photo by Derik Spice Meteorological data markings in centimeters, that 30cm is about a foot, a meter Mostly imperial, but whenever possible report is a few inches longer than a yard, and if you form the NON-AGENCY 2012/13 temperature in SI, as Celsius is standard for temperature letter C between your thumb and middle finger, its width profiles as well as partially explaining snow metamorphism. is about 15cm. These may all sound somewhat silly and continued from previous page I recognize this may be difficult as many automated weather even arbitrary, but students have indicated they have summary page had 3487 page views by observations often arrive in imperial units. found these helpful as they try to wrap their heads around 1439 unique visitors. The average time metric measurements. Elevation spent on the snowpack summary page I am curious how you feel about this topic. Is this an Imperial. All topographic maps use feet, and there is no was over three minutes. UN-inspired conspiracy, lofty but impractical, or an idea reason to challenge this. KPAC, in affiliation with Prescott whose time has come and is worthy of consideration? I College and Arizona Snowbowl ski Avalanche dimensions welcome your thoughts. resort, ran five Level 1 avalanche courses This is a tricky one as many find measuring large distances Greg Gagne’s day job is computer science professor at Westminster for a record-breaking 44 students. in meters quite challenging. However, unless one is using a College, but you can also find We offered four $200 scholarships to precise measurement tool (such as a rope or GPS), accuracy him in the Wasatch backcountry students enrolled using funds raised at often suffers regardless of whether the guess is in SI or about 75 days each season where our annual Mikee Linville Scholarship imperial. I would argue for SI whenever possible. he moonlights as an avalanche Fundraiser. We also conducted two Distances at or below the snow surface educator as well as providing field “Introduction to Avalanches” clinics This is perhaps the most important area where reporting observations (in metric of course!) for approximately 65 participants. needs to be done in SI units. If we ideally want backcountry for the Utah Avalanche Center. We continued our involvement with travelers to ultimately conduct their own snow observations He can be reached at ggagne@ Flagstaff Festival of Science, running and stability tests, all communication must be done in SI, westminstercollege.edu and @ our popular avalanche simulator at the as we cloud the conduction and analysis of these tests by greg_gagne. The author would like to Science in the Park event for hundreds mixing SI and imperial where imperial has no role in formal thank Ethan Greene for his invaluable of local schoolchildren. snowpack tests and stability measurements. insight as he prepared this story. R —David Lovejoy & Troy Marino R